In three-way Florida race, Rubio and Crist continue to take aim at each other

With a comfortable lead in the polls, Republican Marco Rubio came under attack in Wednesday night's Florida Senate debate, as his two rivals painted him as a radical conservative seriously out of step with Florida voters.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who quit the GOP to run as an independent, and Democrat Kendrick Meek teamed up to repeatedly attack Rubio as a right-wing extremist on issues like abortion and Social Security. "You want to take us back to the Dick Cheney days," Meek told Rubio.

Rubio, in return, slammed Meek and Crist for supporting President Obama's stimulus plan and health care bill. He and Crist both labeled Meek as a "far left," "big government" liberal. At the same time, Rubio and Meek took every opportunity to trash Crist as a candidate who has changed his positions to suit his political needs. "Charlie Crist stands on a wet paper box as it relates to the issues," Meek declared. "When it comes to the issues, we don't know where he stands."

While Meek offered up many of the sharpest jabs of the night, Rubio and Crist, who are closer in the polls, still trained most of their fire on each other.

Crist repeatedly sought to cast himself as a moderate willing to rise above politics and stand up to the tea party. He accused Rubio of wanting to overturn Roe vs. Wade and for embracing the tea party's "far right" positions."You haven't been drinking the Kool-Aid, my friend, you've been drinking too much tea," Crist said.

Rubio, in turn, attacked Crist as a political opportunist. "I think it's always funny to listen to the governor attack me for the positions he himself held just six months ago, when he was trying to be the biggest conservative in the world and win the Republican primary," Rubio said.

It's a line of attack that Rubio is playing up in a new ad he released Wednesday that basically calls Crist a phony. "We all know what he's doing," Rubio says in the ad. "Charlie Crist was losing, so he switched sides. Just to win votes, he flip-flopped on everything from the stimulus to Obamacare. ... Don't fall for it."

You can watch the ad here:

(Press-pool photo of Rubio and Crist: Getty Images)