Aug 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Chuck Todd Questions Charlie Crist’s Engagement
I’ve generally liked Chuck Todd’s emergence as a TV talking head, but I’m not really sure it’s appropriate to just allege without evidence that Charlie Crist is entering into a sham engagement:
The best thing about Todd when he first emerged as an on-air personality was that he was sticking so rigorously to the facts, the numbers, and the ins-and-outs of the Democratic Primary rule. It was like the kind of strictly business coverage you usually get at National Journal (where, of course, he used to work) except on television. But I suppose one problem with television is that if you do well on it, you get pushed to do more-and-more TVesque stuff like this.
45 Responses to “Chuck Todd Questions Charlie Crist’s Engagement”
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August 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Maybe he needn’t have gone there but it’s definitely a thought that’s crossed my mind.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Oh Matt don’t try to be so virginial. Somebody aught to do this kind of stuff for dems.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I liked you better before you started concern trolling.
Shorter Matt Yglesias: “It’s terrible people are suggesting CHARLIE CRIST IS GAY!!!!!!”
August 27th, 2008 at 9:49 am
In fairness to Chuck, this is not exactly a scandalous accusation. He was basically saying to well-informed viewers that Crist isn’t going to get the nod because he’s a homosexual who got engaged out of political convenience. Why can’t he say that? Everyone knows it’s true. I’d be more pissed to hear pundits cover for him, knowing what they know.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Some things are self-evident, Mr. Y.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am
while i agree with the sentiment of “it’s not exactly a scandalous accusation”, i do agree with matt that this is none of people’s business. i suppose the argument is to be made that once you’ve thrown yourself into the public arena, all bets are off, but i still believe people’s sexuality (or denial of said sexuality) deserves a modicum of respect, and such accusations belong in the field of tabloid journalism.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I don’t know why but I find the new blog’s format unreadable. Too much contrast and the banner at the top is a bit silly. Just saying… I preferred the old Atlantic one.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Matt, do you have nothing to say about Hillary’s convention speech?
August 27th, 2008 at 10:19 am
MY:
The better question is why didn’t Todd bring up Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell. Crist is far from the only Republican there have been rumors about.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Saying that Crist is gay isn’t a scandalous accusation (although people should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to be out), but saying he’s a fraud who would fake an engagement out of political expediency is pretty scandalous.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Matt didn’t say it was nobody’s business. He said that you shouldn’t make these allegations with no evidence to back ‘em up.
“Obama’s really gay & Michelle is covering up for him.” Do I have any evidence for that? Nope. Should I say that without any evidence? Nope.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
He didn’t “allege” or “accuse”: speculate is what he did, and fair enough too.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Matt, do you have nothing to say about Hillary’s convention speech?
Eh. Just as there are some Hillary supporters who’ll never change their mind about Obama no matter what anyone says or does, I’m no longer revising my opinions of Bill or Hillary Clinton. Hopefully we can all agree on our estimation of the Republican Party and leave it at that.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:37 am
But it is a sham engagement.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
A better question Todd could have asked is why the Republican Party is so homophobic and gay-hating that there is no way that they could accept a gay VP candidate like Crist or Graham.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
But-cha are Blanche- ya are in that chair!
Matt is hardly the first to make that speculation, and it is not without some quite interesting reasons- the all too convenient leak of the “make out video” being just one.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Frogmorton5:
Fair enough if you go by Peggy Noonan’s Golden Rule.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I don’t know anything about the facts of this situation, nor do I have any idea what Chuck Todd may or may not know about those facts. However, if it is an open secret that a politician is gay, journalists should not be in the business of keeping that secret.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I’m all for keeping Charlie Crist in the closet. It’s a nice setup for another Larry Craig scenario.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I’ll put in a request for a Brian Schweitzer thread. What a fun speech! It deserves a lot more press than it’s getting.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am
What a scandalous accusation. To say that Crist is gayer than a pink unicorn is absurd. What will these crazy liberals say next? Pretty soon they’ll be calling studs like Tom Cruise gay…
August 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
The fact is that it is an open secret in Florida that Governor Crist is gay. Maybe he has become engaged because he’s a switch hitter, a little AC/DC action.
I hadn’t heard the McConnell/Graham rumors but it has been widely rumored that Texas Governor Rick Perry is a bit swishy.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Chuck Todd is and was a snivelling little hack who they coached and dressed up a little better so that he would give a more serious impression. check out some of his greatest hits. Chuck Todd’s profession is being a propagandist.
Russert was the same thing. Everyone knew his presentation was garbage, but then after he died, the Machine closed ranks to make sure he was eulogized non-stop for a week or two. Now Media Matters has oddly taken his name off their list of big-offender media personalities, even though he was one of the worst ones, and since he was a conscienceless soldier for the Machine, it’s entirely appropriate to keep his name up there so people can easily check out the examples of his disgusting corruption.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
There was plenty of straight dope down here in SoFla in ‘alternative’ outlets like the New Times & City Link that made a strong showing that Crist was Teh Gay. Does that make the engagement a sham? Who knows, but concluding such is hardly an out-on-a-limb accusation.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Eh. Just as there are some Hillary supporters who’ll never change their mind about Obama no matter what anyone says or does, I’m no longer revising my opinions of Bill or Hillary Clinton.
Well, yeah, there are some hold HRC supporters like that, but I think pretty much everyone agrees that, to paraphrase Samantha Bee of the Daily Show, they’re acting like a bunch of stupid bitches. Seriously, Matt. Your defense is that you’re just like the obnoxious PUMA crowd? It’s politics. Time to grow up, dude.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hotline has always been slightly irreverent. The GOP doesn’t have such a complex with sticking to the facts and neither should Dems. Viva Chuck Todd!
August 27th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
A far more important issue with Crist is the way his gleaming white hair and uber-tan make him look like a photo negative.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
i do agree with matt that this is none of people’s business. i suppose the argument is to be made that once you’ve thrown yourself into the public arena, all bets are off, but i still believe people’s sexuality (or denial of said sexuality) deserves a modicum of respect
I disagree, for two reasons, both related to hypocrisy.
First, at a personal level: if he’s lying about it, then he’s not a man of integrity, and that is absolutely relevant to his fitness for office.
Second, institutionally, the Republican party rose to power in the 00s in part by demonizing homosexuals and stoking fears about homosexual civil rights – essentially, through a policy of anti-gay bigotry around gay marriage. Crist, as a self-identified Republican, is both complicit in and has (I believe – but argue away) materially benefited from that strategy. So arguing that HIS sexual orientation is now off limits is applying a double standard to his bigotry that benefits him – which is prima facie abhorrent. Rise by bigotry, fall by bigotry.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I think Chuck Todd is on pretty safe ground here. It’s clearly a widely known or believed thing among the political and journalistic elite. Obviously they can’t get sources on the record about it, but go read up on the below-the-radar FL coverage of it.
What’s scandalous is these elites conspiring to keep information from the masses. Why do they get to decide what we should and should not know? It’s just too David Broder-y, refusing to admit that the emperor has no clothes.
The GOP should get over its hypocritical hang ups that force its gay politicians to stay in the closet. It’s the same with the fact that came out during the Mark Foley scandal that there are lots of gay GOP staffers who have to keep it quiet for fear of upsetting the GOP voters.
August 27th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
The Peter Principle in action.
Now, my guess is that Todd’s number-crunching background has relatively little time for niceties — that’s to say, the CQ/NJ types run with the assumptions on the ground about Crist as variables. But the more he gets dragged into this stuff, the less effective his raw horserace coverage will be.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
while i’d love with every piece of my heart having a gay governor in florida, i will be upset whereupon crist may actually come out. he’s done nothing to fight the horrifying attempts at oppression in this state including supporting a ban on gay and lesbian adoption… and you know how great our dcf is. and he’s potentially entering into a false union. that’s just not attractive. you know what damages the sanctity of marriage? fake cover marriages demanded by bigots. we’re kind of expecting him to get the nomination for veep solely based on this tidbit, but i know nothing about the mccain campaign, so whatevs.
the reality is, he’s never owned property; instead he’s leased the same condo for some ridiculous amount of time. he’s not ever been seen with a woman since his divorce in 1979 after less than a year of marriage. … except the paternity claims in 1989 he vehemently denied. he has, however, been known to frequent venues of an alternative nature in fort lauderdale. then, out of the blue he announces that he’s engaged and he’s allegedly been dating this woman for 6 months. oh yeah? i live down the street from you. landscapers don’t work at 10pm but they’re parked outside late at night? hmmmm.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I lived in Florida for five years, and was part of its gay scene in both St Pete (Crist’s home town) and Ft Lauderdale (gay-central for the state) I never once enoucountered a bona fide, local tale of Crist being gay. No one I knew ever claimed to have seen him in the bars, found him cruising chat rooms, had a friend of a friend who slept with him etc. Rather, the rumors were all Internet whispers, usually to be found on rightwing sites like RedState. This is because Crist is a fairly moderate Republican, even a bit populist at times. The rumors also resurfaced during the 06 primary eason when he running against an uber-rightwinger who billed himself as a “Jeb Bush conservative”.
The real scandal here is not whether Crist is gay or his engagement is a sham– the scandal is that Crist, long a social moderate, once a severe critic of the Terri Schiavo fanatics, has thrown in the towel and is now supporting the anti-gay marriage initiative in Florida, which he long dismissed as a waste of time and effort. So he’s out of the closet as a naked panderer.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Eh, that seemed more like a one-off, jokey line that could be read on a lot of levels. For those who “know” (i.e., political junkies, the kids on the internets, and prolly 3/4 of Floridians), the implication of Todd’s comment is clear. For those who don’t, it could just sound like Todd is suggesting that Crist might be trying to help his chances at the VP slot by conforming to the image of a traditional politician-as-family-guy. Either way, the delivery of the line makes clear that there’s no malice in Todd’s “charge,” nor does he come close to actually suggesting that Crist is entering an “arranged marriage.”
The comment might seem to carry more weight, I suppose, because it does reflect a certain truth of political life. Crist’s announcement of his engagement seemed “too convenient” not necessarily because he is or isn’t “really gay,” but because it coincided with speculation of his consideration as a VP candidate.
But again, Todd isn’t really suggesting that Crist’s marriage is a sham based on political ambition. Obviously, if he were to make such an accusation in earnest, your criticism of Todd’s lack of evidence would stand. This, however, is clearly just a joke, which amuses (many of us) precisely because it conforms to our understanding of politicians’ behavior. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think even the numbers guy gets to make a joke every now and then.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I wonder if he’ll follow through with the wedding if he doesn’t get tapped. For veep I mean.
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