So Far Ahead, Boredom Has Set In

Our readers know by now that I only deal in two commodities: facts and opinionated opinionating.  I do NOT traffic in rumors.  I don't have the time for them.  It's how you know I'm merely an evenings-and-weekends blogger instead of doing this full time.  Which isn't an unmixed curse, since it also means I still have a job in this wreck of an economy, which I wouldn't relinquish even if I won a million McDonalds Monopoly promotion dollars. (Hey, I've got Park Place already - if I devour enough Big Mac value meals, Boardwalk's gotta be out there somewhere, right?)

Even if I did have the time, I don't have the temperment, or the desire to fake it.  There's a purity to my commentary untainted by the crass temptation to post horseshit just to boost fly traffic.  So riddle me this: if Kendrick Meek is going to quit the Florida Senate race and endorse Sorry Charlie Crist after spending every day since the Florida primary tearing The Tuna new ones to try to get past him to Senator Marco - he of the fifteen twenty-five point lead - how will a single Senate seat, even it it WAS winnable, be worth the massive damage done to the Donk Party "brand" amongst its core black voting bloc?:

Nathan Wurzel says Meek can't drop out, or else there would be a disaster for Democrats down-ticket, as many Democrats would stay home. Well... yeah but there is a hotly-contested gubernatorial race in which a D appears.

However, it's possible he's right anyway. If this appeared to blacks that the black guy was being thrown under the bus so that the white guy (or, umber guy, whatever he is) and the Latino guy could have a proper race, it could keep enough of them home to not only sink Crist, but sink, well, Sink, and a host of Congressional reps and state legislators and eff-all too.

Plus, really -- Crist isn't exactly lighting the state on fire, either. Why should Meek drop out? At least he won a primary.

Think of it as a corner the Dems painted themselves into with their relentless race-baiting and vicious ethnic politics.  The pragmatic decision, going all the way back to the spring, would have been to formally invite Charlie Crist to switch parties and bulldoze Meek out of the way then in order to give the outgoing governor a clear shot at the Donk nomination.  Yeah, they'd have been screwing the black guy, but early enough in the process to where the PR damage wouldn't have been as visible.  But now?  After Meek won the Dem senatorial primary over ANOTHER white guy?  Shinola, the last time Democrats tried a stunt like this, at least they replaced one honky with another one.

The thing is, wouldn't you assume that Florida Donks would actually, you know, let K-Meek in on it?:

Meek vehemently insisted on Thursday that he is in the race to the end.

"I'm taking a stand against the radical right,” said Meek. “Marco Rubio has always been the tea party candidate and yesterday Charlie Crist says he wants to crash the tea party, too. I'm the only candidate who's fighting for the middle class and I'm not going anywhere except the United States Senate.

"If you want to stop the privatization of Social Security and Medicare, stop more tax cuts for the wealthy, stop more special-interest tax breaks, stop more environmental destruction and stop more jobs being shipped overseas, I'm asking you to take a stand with me,” added Meek. "Because if they want to go back to the Bush years, they're going to have to go through this 6-foot-3-inch former state trooper."

Whose suits make him look like he's thirteen years old in every campaign photograph.  Seriously, dude, talk to George Zimmer.  He can give you back your neck.

So where'd the horseshit rumor come from?  Guess:

What I hear, from a Florida source (and only one), is that an old Crist hand, an ally and lobbyist, was the one calling this story around, especially calling South Florida Jewish Democrats to claim that this was in the works. The plan, apparently, was to convince enough people that it was happening to get media to report it was happening so that it would snowball interest in it, cripple Meek's candidacy, and make it actually happen.

Rubio's at fifty percent in a three way race, my friends.  If I'm a Floridian, in the words of the late Skip Carey - and with all the obligatory "It ain't over 'till it's over" caveats - I'm declaring it "cocktail hour".

At least THAT rumor is confirmed.