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Crist working to be McCain’s super-surrogate |
Crist is in Washington for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting. McCain was the keynote speaker at Saturday night’s Republican Governors Association dinner.
Three of the Republican governors in attendance keep surfacing as potential picks to join McCain on the ticket — Crist, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
When asked if he was comparing notes with Sanford and Pawlenty, Crist joked that he has talked to them a lot, “but not about that.”
Crist offered a strong defense of McCain in the wake of last week’s story in The New York Times that questioned the Arizona senator’s past dealings with lobbyists.
The Florida governor said he has no doubt that McCain has never been influenced by “any external, inappropriate factor whatsoever.”
“I don’t know that I’ve met a more honorable person in my life than Sen. John McCain other than my father and my mother, of course,” Crist said. “I think his integrity is beyond reproach.”
Crist said the Times story worked in McCain’s favor, creating a “rallying” point for conservatives who might not have supported the Arizonan.
“In a weird way, I think it ended up helping Senator McCain,” Crist said.
The governor also disregarded the Democratic National Committee’s recent charges that McCain is violating Federal Election Commission rules regarding public financing, with Crist saying the average voter doesn’t care about “inside
baseball.”
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