The Political Whore

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor

Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio. This is his first post as a PoHo contributor.

Under the category of “Whose GOP is it anyway?”, NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday served up what some political junkies hoped might be a potential death match rumble on the Beltway’s Sunday morning television’s crown jewel of punditry over the past 15 years.

But MTP has had very few Must See TV episodes since Tim Russert’s tragic death of a heart attack last summer, and this rhetorical rumble failed to materialize.

That’s because in the battle of dueling GOP Governors on the stimulus bill, NBC’s David Gregory chose to bring his two guests on in separate segments to reflect the dissent within the Grand Old Party.

(Video from the MTP appearances after the jump)

First up was Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, said by some to be the Republican Party’s Obama-in-waiting. He spoke about his reasons why he doesn’t like the legislation, while the Sunshine state’s perennially optimistic Charlie Crist, explained why he did.

It was a relatively dry affair. But credit (I suppose) should be given to Jindal to explain why he won’t take some of the federal legislation bill targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, a position seconded by Mississppi’s Haley Barbour on CNN at virtually the same time. (I say credit, because other GOP governors have been whining about a whole lotta pork, but still will take all of the federal booty).

Crist kept his powder dry, as he always does. Although he is strong for the stimulus plan, he shrewdly avoided becoming a cheerleader for the Obama’s adminstration’s homeowner relief plan, announced to decidedly mixed reaction last week.

The Governor spoke about his efforts in working with banks on the foreclosure front, but he made sure not to make headlines by following Gregory’s leading questions.

Crist has been on a Republican island in Florida with his support for the stimulus, so it must have felt good for him to hear his ideological soulmate from the left coast, California’s Arnold Schwarzenneger, say on Saturday he’d gladly take the share of federal monies that Jindal and Barbour are forfeiting.

As the Governor prepares for what should be a fascinating 2009 regular session of the Florida Legislature next week, he’s surely poised to take on more bashing for his somehow indefensible position as being a moderate.

Meanwhile, as the nation’s governors were meeting and discussing their plans for the stimulus, the offspring of the previous popular Florida Republican Governor, was talking trash about the only Republican in the state (other than his pop) who dominates the landscape.

On Saturday night, George P. Bush, blasted Crist for his insufficient bowing down to conservative ideology. His cracks came after a Palm Beach County Republican demanded at a party event earlier this month that Crist should be censured for supporting the stimulus.

(Oh, this just in. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Crist crushing his closest GOP opponent in a mock Senate matchup for 2010).

But back to MTP. With all of the nation’s Governors in DC this weekend for their annual confab, NBC’s David Gregory could have also gone chosen Texas’ Rick Perry, Idaho’s Butch Otter, or perhaps Crist’s biggest ideological opposite (at least as fantasized by some scribes at the Wall Street Journal), South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, whose state incidentally, has the 3rd highest level rate of unemployment in the country, as his debate rival.

But then again, Sanford was busy yesterday as well in a debate on Fox News Sunday that did have some figurative fireworks. Sanford and Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm went at it, with Granholm unleashing a passionate defense of the auto industry in ways seldom seen in the confines of Sunday morning wonkdom.

Sanford played the part of, well, perhaps a professor more concerned with economic theory than his state’s fading economic condition.

In fact, that’s what one South Carolina Democrat has accused Sanford of behaving as.

Charleston State Senator Robert Ford told the L.A. Times, “”I think our governor would make an interesting college professor…. “I think he’s psyched himself out that he’s Mr. Intellectual. . . . He don’t understand that he represents one of the poorest states, and neediest states, in the union.”

In that same piece, Republican Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tempore of the South Carolina Senate, said of his Governor’s obstinate stance on Le Stimulus “I don’t know whether this is some presidential politics underway, and just headline [grabbing]”.

But back to Jindal. His demeanor is – like Crist, and Obama – very genuine, and measured. The Republican Party certain thinks so at least, as they’ll send him out Tuesday night to respond to President Obama’s Message to Congress.

But his ideology is with those who think the stimulus package is all wrong.

From this viewer’s vantage point, he scored with criticism of some of the questionable initiatives in the landmark legislation, and the speed which it was passed.

(Whether you support the stimulus are not, it is fair to question why Congress had to vote on it the day before they broke for the President’s Day Holiday, with little analysis of the final wording. Critics of the USA Patriot Act were right in 2001 when they denounced legislators for voting on a bill they hadn’t read, and voted on virtually the same day it was handed it to them. I was going to write that Democrats were outraged, but as we all know, virtually all of them voted for it – not Russ Feingold in the Senate, or course).

Nevertheless, Crist was sure in not trying to denounce his fellow Republicans, though when asked if the GOP hurt themselves by being so critical of the stimulus plan, he said, “they might have.”’

Overall, it was an impressive performance by the Governor, with the exception of the very plastic response to David Gregory’s question, “Who’s the Leader of the GOP?”

“The People are”, Crist replied. When nudged to come up with something a little less disingenuous by Gregory, he coughed up President Obama as the leader of the country.

I’m wondering about those those Republicans who think it’s a defect that Crist is moderate, and yet notice his near 70 percent approval rankings. Maybe being a ‘true conservative’ isn’t what the public is in the mood for these days?

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