As Florida politicos look ahead to 2016 (holy shit, that's next year), Democrats will have to decide which candidates they will offer up to get beaten with a giant stick made of shredded up Koch brother dollars.
The kids over at the Cable News Network are reporting that among the wide-open field of potential Democratic contenders for a potentially open U.S. Senate seat in Florida is former Governor Charlie Crist, who unsuccessfully bid for the seat as a Republican-turned-Independent against boy wonder Marco Rubio in 2010.
Hundreds of thousands of Floridians just wish he could be governor again, but he can't because he lost his bid last year to a stack of Governor Rick Scott's money.
Crist is kind of a political Rorschach to voters. Some look at him and see a calculating and cynical career politician who will spout whatever populist rhetoric will make whomever's in the room vote for him, only to change his mind when the political winds shift. Others see a genuinely decent human being with an innate passion for public service, a man who stood up to the corrupt establishment of his own political party on behalf of everyday Floridians like you and me, and paid dearly for it.
Or maybe a little bit of both.
Anyway, CNN reports that the proverbial water is being tested. Calls are being made, for God's sake.
"It's very early, but he's being encouraged to seriously consider bringing the people's voice to the U.S. Senate," Crist adviser Kevin Cate told CNN. "And he always listens closely to Floridians."
Rubio, a smooth and confident chap, sailed into office as a Tea Party darling. Now he may possibly run for president next year. He's still figuring out whether he wants to, but, you know, he probably will. Who doesn't want to age 25 years over an eight-year span?
That gives Democrats an in, sort of. If you don't take into account the hundreds of millions, possibly billions, in dark money that will fund baseless attack ads as well as an unpredictable climate that could, at the end of eight years with a Democrat in the Oval Office, likely bode well for the GOP up and down the ticket.
Although, all this business with the 47 Senators who signed that dumb letter to Iran could have enough shelf life to make Florida voters rethink whether having a hard-right Republican in that seat is a good idea in 2016. Just joshin'. That'll be long forgotten in, like, a month.
Among other potential Democratic Senate candidates, reports CNN, are Reps. Alan Grayson, Kathy Castor and Gwen Graham as well as Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, and Rep. Patrick Murphy.
By the way, did anyone notice we made it to the end of a post mentioning Rubio and Crist without employing and bad puns about water or fans? Should we reward ourselves for our effort?
We should.