A Glimmer of Hope in Florida?

Larry Thornberry speculates in his article appearing in The American Spectator that a young, energetic Marco Rubio will be announcing his run for the U.S. Senate this week. Rubio will seek to fill the vacancy left by Mel Martinez at the end of his term next year. Mark Rubio has spent eight years in Florida's House of Representatives and was speaker the last two years. Rubio appears to be a sincere conservative believing in limited government, private sector superiority and a strong foreign policy. Rubio will most certainly be running against Charlie Crist, our resident Specter look-a-like.

Crist, who has held one office or another in Florida politics since 1992 and who won the governorship in 2006, is more often referred to as a moderate or a populist than as a conservative. His favorable ratings in polls remain in the sixties and seventies, even though he's promised much and delivered little on two issues -- property tax relief and high property insurance rates -- that Floridians anguish over. Lots of Democrats and independents like him because he sounds a lot like them.
Crist is popular among rank and file Republicans, but he's cheesed off the conservative wing of the Republican Party by taking extreme environmental positions, including supporting a carbon cap and trade system and attempting to get the Florida Legislature to force Florida utilities to use an unrealistically high percentage of "renewable fuels" to generate electricity. He also spent a good deal of time whooping up President Obama's "stimulus" package (actually appearing on the same stage with Obama in Ft. Myers in February to coo about it) and recently appointed a liberal jurist to the Florida Supreme Court.

Marco Rubio is definitely one to watch.