Florida Governor Faces Fight from Fellow GOPer
ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 14 minutes after the top of the hour. A quick check of other stories new this morning. The first ever tea party convention begins today in Nashville, Tennessee. And CNN has it covered with the best political team on television.</s>CHETRY: That's right. We're taking an in-depth look at the growing tea party movement. Also, some of the anger directed at both parties in Washington and what it could mean for the midterm elections.</s>ROMANS: In Florida, a darling of the tea partiers has the state's governor in a fight for his political life. Here's our Jim Acosta with part two of our special series.</s>GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: We know that it's important that we pass the stimulus package.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist, it's the hug that just won't let go. His embrace of the president and of the stimulus program at this town hall meeting last year could cost this once rising GOP star a shot at a U.S. Senate seat.</s>MARCO RUBIO (R), SENATE CANDIDATE: I've been hearing about these tea parties now for a while.</s>ACOSTA: Meet Marco Rubio. He's challenging Crist for the GOP nomination for that Senate seat in a Darling of the Tea Party Movement. Rubio has turned the hug into a fund-raising gift that keeps on giving.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): Would you give President Obama a hug?</s>RUBIO: Why? Why would I? Depending -- I don't even know him. Why would I hug someone I don't know?</s>ACOSTA: Well, Charlie Crist has gotten himself in a lot of trouble for hugging president Obama.</s>RUBIO: You know, he did -- ultimately, you know, that gets a lot of attention, but what he really got in trouble for is supporting a plan that is helping to bankrupt this country. What I find at events like this is a growing number of Americans who have never been involved in politics before. I bet you, that's a lot of you.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Rubio takes his message of smaller government and lower taxes to Tea Party rallies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the great awakening.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop the spending on unnecessary things.</s>ACOSTA: And his YouTube page features Tea Party activists venting their anger at Washington. Polls show Rubio has closed a 30- point gap and just might win the party primary.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): Would you be the first Tea Party senator, if elected?</s>RUBIO: Well, I'm running -- I'm running as a Republican.</s>ACOSTA: So just the word, it's not a party -- a political party, that is?</s>RUBIO: It's not a political party.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Crist, by contrast, is no Tea Party animal.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): Do you ever sit down with any Tea Party activists and talk to them? Have you talked to any of them over the phone?</s>GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: Not really. No. I haven't. You know, I know that...</s>ACOSTA: Not once?</s>CRIST: No, not once. No. Happy to. I probably have and don't know it.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): For groups like the Tea Party Express, there's no contest.</s>JOE WIERZBICKI, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: You want to know why there's anger with the Republican Party? Republicans embracing massive taxing and spending policies? No. That's not what the Republican Party is supposed to be about, and that's what Charlie Crist did.</s>ACOSTA: Tea Party groups saying millions of Independents, Republicans and even some former Democrats are ready to take down some of the biggest names in politics, from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Republican John McCain. But Democrats say all that in-fighting between Crist and Rubio actually presents an opportunity.</s>JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'll take either of one of them as long as they're wounded and limping into the general election.</s>ACOSTA: Crist, who has a 50 percent job approval rating, is not backing down from a Tea Party fight. He defends the stimulus as a job saver and notes Rubio has stated he too would have accepted funds from the program.</s>CRIST: About 20,000 teachers would be out of work today in my state. I can't in good conscience look them in the eye and say, you know, you and your family are going to be without a bread winner. People have to eat.</s>ACOSTA: He's gambling Conservatives will come around. Defying conventional wisdom in his own party, Crist met President Obama for another stimulus event last week.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): Did you get any feedback from your fellow Republicans in this state that maybe you shouldn't be there when the president landed in Tampa?</s>CRIST: A lot, actually. I -- I...</s>ACOSTA: They were telling you, don't do it?</s>CRIST: Yes. Quite a few people -- I got a lot of advice.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): They shook hands for 27 seconds.</s>CRIST: I think people really want -- I think they're honestly sort of tired of the bickering they see coming out of Washington. I think that's part of the change that they want to see. It's part of the reason I'm running for the United States Senate. I think we need more civility.</s>ACOSTA: So we're going to see the outcome of these two very different approaches in Florida, Marco Rubio embracing the Tea Party Movement, Charlie Crist certainly not embracing the Tea Party Movement. The primary is on August 24th, so there is lots of time for this race to change, and things have already changed in Florida. The chairman of the Republican Party in Florida has stepped down because of the furor going on between these two candidates over whether or not to embrace the Tea Partiers. When Jim Greer, the chairman down there, announced essentially his support for Charlie Crist, the Tea Partiers savaged him. He stepped down. And he said to me, when I talked to him about this story, he said, somebody tell me when I stopped being a Conservative.</s>CHETRY: Right.</s>ROMANS: Wow. Interesting.</s>CHETRY: Very interesting. Absolutely. We'll be covering it throughout the morning. We'll check in with you again. Thanks, Jim.</s>ACOSTA: Sounds good.</s>CHETRY: Well also, still ahead, cruising for a cause. In the last part of our series "Welcome in the Tea Party", we're going to be telling you about a carnival cruise to the Caribbean where Tea Partiers sound off on the president ship to shore. That's tomorrow, right here on</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROMANS: What do you think of the Tea Party Movement? We want to know. Share your comments in Jim Acosta's log at cnn.com/amfix.</s>CHETRY: And coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, Stephanie Elam in "Minding Your Business". We're going to be taking a look at some of the biggest stock market losers of the past decade. Nineteen minutes after the hour.