Appearing on Morning Joe today, Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) stood by his support for the stimulus bill, even as he struggles in the Republican primary for Senate largely as a result of that very position.
“Do you regret hugging the president?” Scarborough asked, pointing to the image of a pro-stimulus rally a year ago, which has been used frequently by Crist’s opponent in the Republican primary, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.
“Not in the least,” Crist replied –Â a bit of a change from several months ago, when he downplayed his support for the bill.
Scarborough asked: “Do you regret supporting the stimulus bill?”
“Not in the least. No, it was the right thing to do,” said Crist. “Listen, our economy was going off into the abyss, and if we didn’t have those moneys, we would have had 87,000 people out of work today in the Sunshine State. Twenty of those — 20,000 of those, rather, are educators, and you know, how many people does that translate into, in terms of the children that they teach? It was the right thing to do, we needed the money. That’s why every Republican governor in the country took it. It was a common sense approach, to do what’s right. Do we need a second one? No.”
Scarborough continued to rub in just how damaging the video of Crist shaking hands and hugging Obama was — going so far as to compare it to the Zapruder home movie of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy!
But Crist stuck by it. “If I might comment on that, since we’ve talked about it a lot. I was raised by a mother and father who treated me and my three sisters to be civil to other people. And I am a guy who understands that the presidency of the United States of the America deserves respect,” said Crist. “And when the president comes to my state, and it’s the first time he comes to Florida after he’s sworn in about a month before, I’m gonna be there and represent the people of my state. Because I am the governor of all the people, all the 20 million people, almost, who live in Florida, I’m their governor, and I’m gonna fight for them. And I’m not gonna apologize for it.”
Back in November 2009, Crist had denied that he’d supported the stimulus bill. “I didn’t endorse it. I didn’t even have a vote on the darn thing,” he said today. “But I understood that it was gonna pass and I wanted to be able to utilize it for the benefit of my fellow Floridians.” Among the debunkings of this statement was Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson, who pointed out that he’d previously asked Crist whether he would have voted for the bill if he’d been a Senator. The answer was, “Absolutely.”
