Florida GOP chief out, twine unwinding?

by Mark Silva

Jim Greer -- and the Swamp will remember him today as the fellow who criticized President Barack Obama's back-to-school speech to students last fall as a platform for the president's "socialist ideology'' -- resigned today as chairman of the Florida GOP.

This alone may not sound very significant.

But when taken as another piece of the unraveling twine which is the career of the long-popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (pictured here), it is significant. Greer, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, was Crist's man. And some complained that Greer was playing favorites in his role as party chairman in the midst of an increasingly heated party primary for an open Senate seat.

Crist, the former state legislator known as "chain-gang Charlie'' for his promotion of hard-time for prison inmates, the former attorney general known for environmental and antitrust-busting activities popular with consumers and the Republican governor perhaps best remembered lately for wrapping his arm around Obama as the president promoted his economic stimulus spending plans in Florida last year, is having some trouble with a GOP Senate primary which, a year ago, would have seemed his for the taking.

Crist is a moderate to progressive Republican, criticized in some circles for bending to whatever the popular wind is. A conservative Republican from Miami, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, is giving the governor a run for his life in the primary for a seat vacated by former Sen. Mel Martinez -- a Republican who had forfeited his own co-chairmanship of the RNC when his own political fortunes were failling -- a seat that is being held by a Crist-appointed place-holder, Sen. George LeMieux, until November's elections.

The conservative Club for Growth has weighed in against Crist in the primary, in another match pitting the farthest-right wing of the party against its center. And Greer, who steps down on Feb. 20, called himself a victim of that fight today.

"As you know, there is a great debate in our party on the direction, moderates vs. conservatives, whether we should have a big tent or a small tent," Greeer said. "And while I have made it my utmost concern to try and keep those arguments and discontents out of the Republican Party of Florida, over the last six months there has been a very vocal group within our party that has become very active in seeking an effort to oust me as chairman. They have distorted facts, they have talked about misspending of money, when the facts have been shown over and over and over that that's not true. They have talked about my support of Gov. Crist for the U.S. Senate race. They have, as they say, thrown everything up against the wall as they possibly can, to either embarrass me or embarrass the Republican Party of Florida."

Crist himself has conceded in an interview with reporters that he has not been "on my game'' all the time lately.

Greer wasn't always on his game, either. "As the father of four children,'' he said of the president's plans to address school-children nationally last fall, "I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology.''

Early handicapping for Greer's replacement: State Sen. John Thrasher, a former House speaker there (they term-limit their lawmakers to eight years, which sends a lot of House leaders into the Senate, and vice versa) and ex-lobbyist for the Florida Medical Association. He's a gregarious, moderate fellow. And he campaigned against Crist.

(Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, long-popular but now fighting for his party's Senate nomination, is pictured above at a crossroad. Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images)