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According to Roll Call, Florida GOP Senator Mel Martinez, former national GOP chair, HUD Secretary and all-around creation of the Bush machine, is considering early (?!) retirement from his first Senate term, possibly setting up Charlie Crist to appoint himself to the Senate vacancy.
In what could be a Sunshine State one-two punch, multiple Republican sources are confirming that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is giving serious consideration to running for Senate — and that Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) is contemplating resigning from his seat before his term is up next year.
Martinez has already announced he will not run for re-election when his first term expires in 2010. Crist, according to sources, has had multiple serious conversations about running for Senate with both Martinez and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas).
This speculation appears to be jamming up the GOP’s other potential candidates for Mel’s seat:
Sources say most Republicans are waiting on the sidelines because they want to see what Crist does before jumping into the Senate race, and explain further that Sink could be eyeing an open gubernatorial seat in 2010, when Crist’s first term is up.
Florida’s lieutenant governor is a Republican and would appoint Martinez’s successor if he and Crist both resign prematurely.
TPM reminds us that governors who slide into Senate vacancies themselves have spectacular burnouts:
The rub here is that Crist might then be presented with the opportunity appoint himself to the seat – either doing it directly or by resigning and having his Lt. Governor do the job for him — which sounds just a little too good to be true. The history of governors appointing themselves to the Senate is almost entirely negative. The last person to do this was Governor-turned-Senator Wendell Anderson (D-MN), whose move into Walter Mondale’s Senate seat in December 1976 resulted in a Republican landslide all across Minnesota in 1978.
Jeb! already took himself out of the running, but would an appointment to the Senate — enabling him to run in 2010 as an incumbent — change his mind?
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OT early but according to NBC’s Chuck Todd the Republicans have won the spin war on the stimulus package. With this corporate media who is surprised?
This is the refs working the refs!
Chuck Todd, establishment tool and math whiz, purports to read the tea leaves — and they say “Establishment GOP wins!” What a shock.
Now that the spigot has been turned off and there’s no more loot to be made selling out your constituents, it’s no fun to be a Republican congressman anymore. I mean, for that kind of money, who the hell could afford to live in a gated community?
With all this realignment going on in the Senate, has anyone asked how the GOP gets 41 votes to invoke cloture?
I might be missing something here, but I don’t think 60 votes is not the only magic number, 41 should be as well.
Question for Jeb! Your daddy and Caroline K. were together on the platform at the inauguration. Why didn’t daddy walk over and give her a hug?
Sounds as if they are playing musical chairs in Fl. What a surprise s/
Jeepers, GOP gaming the system? shocker. I wonder what the good people of Fla. would have to say about the self-appointed leaders?
special elections anyone?
Gotta love it when the repubs are deep into some infighting.
Check out what they do when they don’t have the president to hide behind:
http://tv1.com/playlists/225
Gee, this year could be the biggest turnover in the senate in living memory.
the freakin game playing and meanwhile more ‘fundamentals’ have lost their jobs, homes, healthcare, etc.
I love the idea of Alex Sink going after an open seat in 2010. That would be the best thing that could happen for us here in Florida. Moving Martinez out early and then having Charlie lose badly in the same election cycle would be icing on the cake.
JEB! has some pretty serious credibility issues these days. He is pretty personally involved in the gutting of the state’s retirement funds and a LOT of people are upset about that. It might not prevent him accepting a Senate appointment (after all, that would make raising money for a criminal defense easy if Sink’s administration came after him for the loot), but I don’t see him as a viable candidate at the polls here for quite a while. Crist is orders of magnitude more electable right now, but as you say, he could harm himself a lot by grabbing the Senate seat.
What happened to the retirement funds? I have a vague memory of the story. Did they have more than their fair share of toxic junk?
From TPM:
The best example they can provide is over 30 years old?
Yep, and Jeb! moved right out of the governor’s mansion into a job at Lehman Brothers, which just happened to have sold us a lot of that junk.
Uh oh. That’s a precious record to run for political office on! What’s Jeb doing now that Lehman’s gone?
I prefer riding herd on Dems. How ’bout you? This sounds just dandy. ;->
I’m not sure. But whatever it is, you can bet that it’s bad for Florida.
Obama sez we gotta make him do it.
Teddy!
HEY! You Magnificent Galliform you! Thanks for the good news. Martinez pooped from too much goop? Poor lad. Buh-bye Mel.
His wiki stops at the move to Lehman. Guess no one’s interested in poor Jebbie anymore.
*pulling on boots and strapping on spurs*
Comin’ Ma-am!
*sniffle* /s
Seriously, must go shovel porch before resolve..f.a.i.l.s…m..e…..
Back later. Carry on doggies.
(((eCAHN)))
Teddy !
Do we really need another closeted Repub in Congress ? (rhetorical)
Daschle’s withdrawn according to msnbc.
Appointing himself…wasn’t that what Gov. Blago of Illinois was contemplating?
Did not know that little Jebbie was working for Lehman right before it cratered. Might explain why Lehman was not bailed out (others were) – would have been a clear link to GWB before Fall election. Maybe the story of why Lehman was not bailed out should amended? The consequences turned out to be worse for everyone.