It would appear that former President Bill Clinton enjoys the role as henchman for Team Obama. A fresh story has emerged with Clinton as political puppeteer. Seems in the Florida Senate race, Clinton was dispatched to Florida to kick Rep Kendrick Meeks out of the race and clear the field for current Gov Charlie Crist, now an Independent candidate after leaving the GOP with really poor polling numbers for a successful primary race.
This time the story is that Clinton approached Meeks to leave the race so that Crist would receive the votes against front runner Marco Rubio, a Republican. Rubio has maintained a comfortable lead to head into a victory on November 2. Crist, who says he will caucus with Democrats if elected, embraced the Obama bail outs and stimulus plan in Florida which led to his political demise as Governor.
Crist is an opportunist. He believes that whatever is best for his own political career is best for the state of Florida. He fits right in with Team Obama. Meeks, while not the sharpest tool in the shed, is an affable enough guy. He doesn't come off a so liberal as to turn off more moderate leaning Democrats on election day but Crist has pulled much of his support from him. Crist, quite simply, will say anything it takes to win a race. Meeks was a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2008 an so was his long-serving mother before him. Meeks has represented the 17th district of Florida since 2003 in the U.S House of Representatives.
Officially, Meeks denies Clinton pressured him to quit the race. "We had a conversation in Orlando. The president and I talked about it," Meek said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe" Friday. "I told him I'm not going to do it and that's just the bottom line." The rumors surfaced last week as unnamed sources claimed that Meeks and Crist were joining forces to beat Rubio. Then the story with the Clinton connection came to light this week.
This is a pattern for Clinton.
From The Daily Caller:
After intervening in elections across the country, from attempting to sell Joe Sestak on a White House job in exchange for allowing Sen. Arlen Specter to run unchallenged, to campaigning in Rhode Island for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate Pres. Obama has refused to endorse, Clinton made his way to Florida.
Once there, he hit the campaign trail with Rep. Kendrick Meek, a South Florida congressman running for Republican George LeMieux’s Senate seat against Gov. Charlie Crist, now divorced from the GOP and running as an independent, and Republican Marco Rubio, a Florida state legislator.
But as in the cases of Pennsylvania and Colorado, it appears that Clinton came to Florida not to help a Democrat, but to derail one. Now the situation has blown up in the former president’s face, with both Rubio and RNC Chairman Michael Steele spinning Clinton’s dealings as one of many “secret deals to trade away principles for power.”
It is particularly odd since Meeks is black. Obama is bi-racial, the first to be President. One would think Obama would wish to help Meeks in his pursuit for office instead of a GOPer turned Democratic-caucusing Independent candidate. Obama is fast and loose with facts as he accuses others of racism. Where is his wish for a more 'diverse' Senate? And, what with Clinton being the "first black president" and all, not to mention the Meeks' family loyalty to the Clintons, is this any way to reward friends?
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