Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to forsake the Republican Party is an act of egomaniacal irresponsibility that won’t win him the U.S. Senate seat anyway, Fox News commentator Dick Morris tells Newsmax.TV
Crist was expected to announce at 5 p.m. today that he will run as an independent for the Senate seat after he fell far behind his GOP opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.
“It is irresponsible of Crist to do this,” Morris said during an interview in advance of Crist’s news conference. “It’s an act of egomania, it’s an act of putting himself ahead not just of his party, but of his country.”
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Morris, who had urged people on his website to contact Crist to tell him not to run as an independent, says, “He is so important to America that he’s not only willing to risk a senate seat; he’s willing to risk republican control of the senate. We haven’t seen an act of that kind of egomania in American politics since Ralph Nader doomed Al Gore’s effort to be president.”
Crist’s move also complicates the GOP’s effort to retain the seat, Morris says, adding that he thinks Rubio still will defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek for the seat.
“Meek, who is the Democratic candidate, is an African-American congressman with a very left-wing record, really a carbon copy of Obama’s,” Morris says. “I don’t think he can get elected, certainly not in a two-way race and probably not in a three-way race either, but you can’t be sure.”
But Morris underscored the high stakes: “We need that seat. And we have to win it. We just have to be determined to do that, and as I said, we’re ahead.”
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