The Count Of Charlie Crist, Oh! Part 6

New Rasmussen poll has Florida GOP Gov. Charlie Crist and State Sen. Marco Rubio all knotted up at 43% ahead of August's Senate primary.  The corporate masters behind the Teabaggers are looking to buy themselves a Senator now while the price is low.

Nationally, the GOP’s Florida Senate race is being watched as a test of the new “Tea Party” mood among many conservative and traditionally Republican voters. The GOP Primary is scheduled for August 24.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of self-described conservatives favored Rubio. In October, Crist still had support from just over half the conservative primary voters.

Crist angered many conservatives in the state when he supported President Obama’s $787-billion economic stimulus plan. While the Republican establishment has endorsed Crist, some prominent GOP conservatives including Mike Huckabee, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and former Bush adviser Karl Rove are backing Rubio.

Both Crist and Rubio are vying to be the Republican nominee in next year’s race to fill the seat vacated by retiring GOP Senator Mel Martinez. In August, Crist as governor named his former chief of staff, George LeMiuex, to serve the remainder of Martinez’s term, but LeMieux is not running for a full term next year.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of likely GOP Primary voters approve of Crist’s performance as governor. Forty-three percent (43%) disapprove of the job he is doing.

The Teabaggers have made the elimination of Crist a national priority, and they see this race as the symbol of where the GOP has to be headed into 2010 and beyond:  plunging screaming into Birther territory ahead of 2012.  Note that Republicans like the job Crist has done, but don't think he'd make a good Senator.  If there's a race where the Teabaggers have managed to convince the people that the stimulus package was a terrible idea, despite the fact it probably saved the state's bacon, it's this one.