Who Runs Gov

NRSC chief John Cornyn endorsed popular Governor Charlie Crist in the Florida GOP Senate primary this morning. The Crist candidacy is being hailed by pundits as a coup for Cornyn and the embattled national GOP, and rightly so.

But what’s interesting is that Cornyn’s endorsement comes only a week after he said he wouldn’t take sides at all in the Florida GOP primary, in which Crist is squaring off against conservative candidate Marco Rubio. From the Politico last week:

Cornyn added that he will not intervene in a contested primary, in which Crist would be facing former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Cornyn also recently said the NRSC wouldn’t take sides in what was then looking like a Pennsylvania primary between Tom Ridge and conservative candidate Pat Toomey, before Ridge opted out. Cornyn said then that he wouldn’t tell Republican primary voters how to vote.

Today’s shift is interesting because of the larger context. Cornyn’s decision to endorse in the primary after saying he wouldn’t suggests that the national GOP, reeling from the news of Arlen Specter’s defection and the string of gaffes from Michael Steele, badly needed to boast a recruiting victory to boost morale. Crist represents such a recruiting victory.

What’s more, the GOP is taking heavy fire from Dems as a party of intolerants who are bent on blocking Obama’s agenda at all costs and won’t allow moderates in the party. The decision to back the more moderate Crist, a supporter of Obama’s stimulus package who is more electable in a general election, suggests that top Republicans know these attacks are effective in alienating moderates and splitting their party.

For these reasons, it appears, the national party jumped at the chance to endorse Crist. Either way, the decision to endorse Crist is already infuriating conservatives, and the Florida primary is shaping up as another battle royale over the soul of the GOP.

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