Restitutor Orbis

TampaBay.com is asking the question, "Is Governor Charlie Crist a statesman or a sellout?"

It's clear what the Republican party believes. Get this statement of ignorance:

"I don't think he's helped any national Republican ambitions he may have by stepping up to the plate and batting for the other team. … There's a difference between working in a bipartisan way for the common good and switching sides and putting on the other team's jersey," said veteran Republican consultant Alex Castellanos. "At the one moment when we've finally found our voice and remember who we are as Republicans, Charlie Crist forgets. It's stunning."

Alex: WE ARE AMERICANS.

But that seems to be the lesson lost on the Republican Party of 2009.

Crist's full-throated support evoked a rare rebuke from one of his closest political allies, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who said on the Senate floor that Crist didn't get it.

"I don't know that my governor understands all the details of this package — that there will be nothing here to help with Florida's housing economy," Martinez said stressing the need for more tax cuts.

For his part, Charlie Crist is unapologetic. He says his state needs help. Period.

Good for him. He is doing right by his constituents. They put him there to take care of them, and he is trying. I hope they recognize this.

This is Republicanism's embrace of the Christian "other":

"They may not be saying it outright, but the Republican delegation is very angry. If they got Charlie Crist in a dark alley, all you'd have left is a tuft of white hair," said Ana Navarro, a Republican consultant from Miami, suggesting Crist has dampened enthusiasm for a potential Senate run in 2010.

The article does well to let Charlie Crist have the last word. He is, after all, the man under the microscope, and he deserves to speak for himself:

Presumably Crist won't be among those running against that bill. But if the governor has any misgivings about the politics of appearing with Obama, he sure isn't showing it.

"My concern is not about what's best for one party or the other. My concern is what's best for the state and what's best for the people of Florida," he said Thursday, when he invited a mostly Democratic group of African-American legislators to the Governor's Mansion to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP and the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

"This is our president, and I wanted to show support for what he's trying to do, to help our students in the classroom, the most vulnerable in our society who deserve health care and the infrastructure benefit that this will bring about," Crist said.