The Count Of Charlie Crist, Oh! Part 11

Watching Charlie Crist's self-immolation has been very instructive, and it seems every month Marco Rubio increases his lead.  It's starting to take a toll as Crist staffers are now bailing a good eight months before the election.

Political director Pablo Diaz, one of the first two staff members hired for the Senate campaign, is departing at the end of the month for "a new opportunity." Sean Doughtie, a well-regarded new media consultant who had worked with Crist for years, stopped working for the campaign at the end of January.

"The campaign was going in a different direction," said Doughtie.

Meanwhile, a poll released Monday pointed to Crist's dire position six months before the Republican primary: Rubio was leading Crist by 18 percentage points — 54 percent to 36 percent — among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Feb. 18 Rasmussen Reports poll with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

"Rubio now carries male GOP voters by a two-to-one margin but breaks even with Crist among women," the pollster wrote in a memo. "The governor also breaks even among moderate Republicans, but conservatives in the party favor his challenger now by more than 40 points."

At this point it's been a massive turnaround from this time last year.  Florida's Republican party is bound and determined to go Teabagger, even as Rubio and Crist take turns bragging about how much of Florida's financial safety net each has pledged to destroy in the middle of a recession.

That keeps leaving openings for Kendrick Meek.  Right now, he's more than happy to see these two tear each other up.