COMMENTARY | Florida was all abuzz by allegations that former Florida Governor Charlie Crist paid two people to cover up having a homosexual relationship. But Crist's troubles are the least of Florida's GOP's problems, especially for golden boy Marco Rubio, the newly minted senator from the Sunshine State.
According to the WTSP story "UPDATE Report: Crist paid men to hide gay affair," reporters wrote about the dispute between Crist and former Florida Republican Party Chair Jim Greer. But the real problem could come at Greer's trial, when a lot of information about state spending shenanigans could be revealed.
"Greer is supposed to go to trial July 30 but many believe the Republican Party doesn't want to happen because there could be many more embarrassing allegations mostly about lying and excessive spending by party leaders including house speaker Dean Cannon, Senate president Mike Haridopolos, State Senator John Thrasher, former Senator George LeMieux and U.S. Senate Marco Rubio," WTSP reports.
So state Republicans don't want the embarrassing stuff to come out before the convention? Will it go better for the Romney ticket if the information comes out just before the election?
I know Marco Rubio is the favorite choice of Republicans, according to a recent straw poll of likely vice-presidential candidates. In the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) poll in Chicago, Rubio got the most support (30 percent), followed by Chris Christie with less than half as many votes. Others include Congressman Paul Ryan, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Nor was this a fluke. Rubio won this same poll a few months ago, when there was no clear front-runner in the Republican race for president.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, the runner-up to Romney for the nomination, offered a fairly tepid assessment of Rubio. Santorum claims that Rubio often says one thing, and does another, something CNN agrees with. It claims he says one thing to Hispanics and another to conservatives.
But if the Greer trial continues to leak damaging information to Florida Republicans, what Rubio says to two different audiences will be the least of the GOP's concerns this Fall. There are a lot of other good, well-qualified running mates for Romney to choose from. He should consider one of them.
