RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Christian M. Wade has covered the City of Tampa since 2008. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

Tribune Politics Coverage

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

More Resources:

• TBO.com Home Page
• TBO.com Politics
• TBO.com News Updates
• Live Traffic Updates
• TBO.com Communities

Most Recent Entries

• 1 Killed This Week in Afghanistan
• Nelson: Obama birth control compromise “seems to solve the problem”
• Sharpe suspending campaign
• Sharpe to make announcement, may be out of House race
• Largo Military Museum Gets New Name, Mission
• Planned Parenthood: Polls show Catholics, voters favor contraception coverage
• Weatherford denies any attempt to undermine West
• Michelle Obama to tour Florida for healthy eating
• Pentagon Co-Spokesman Changed Trim After Boss’ Haircuts
• Brig. Gen. Becomes Highest-Ranking Death in Afghanistan
• Special Operations Command To Go Para-Commando Over University of Tampa
• Air Force To Cut Nearly 300 Planes, But None From MacDill
• POTUS Veterans Job Act: Billions To Hire Vets As Law Enforcement, First Reponders, Park Workers
• Will Israel Really Strike Iran? SECDEF Won’t Comment On Ignatius Assertion
• College Scholarship Available To a Lucky Family At MacDIll

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• Political Safari

Crist, Rubio duel in conservative mag—Crist’s sharpest attacks yet

Posted Mar 4, 2010 by William March

Updated Mar 4, 2010 at 11:41 AM

Marco Rubio blasted Gov. Charlie Crist in a National Review Online interview yesterday, and Crist struck back today with his sharpest attacks yet on Rubio, calling Rubio’s claims to conservatism a fraud.

The exchange in the online version of the conservative journal, an intellectual trendsetter for the right, takes the battle between Crist and Rubio to a new level.

In an article yesterday, Rubio blasted Crist for saying there might be parts of President Barack Obama’s health care proposal that are worth saving, and that the nation’s health care system needs reform.

“Again and again, from tax hikes to runaway government spending, my opponent has demonstrated he cannot be trusted,” Rubio wrote. “His recent comments, in which he broke ranks with Republicans and said he would not scrap the health care bill and process, is just the latest example.”

Today, Crist shot back, saying Rubio’s claim to be a conservative is the “greatest fraud perpetrated on people,” and citing recent revelations about Rubio’s use of a Republican Party credit card for apparently personal expenses as proof.

“When this guy calls himself the real conservative in the race, I’ve got to point out that it’s the opposite,” Crist said. “If you look at the expense reports from his GOP credit card, it is easy to see that he’s not conservative, but one of the most irresponsible spenders I’ve ever seen.”

While blasting Rubio, Crist denied he’s going negative—“that’s not my nature”—but said he’s “going accurate and honest.”