Florida Governor and Republican candidate for US Senate Charlie Crist was asked today about an Independent bid should he lose the upcoming Republican primary to Marco Rubio. His response: "I'm not thinking about that today. We'll look at that later on." (source)

Continued...

This is a significant change from his campaign's April 8 written statement that read in part, "Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation." (source)

Other signs that the moderate Mr. Crist, infamous among conservatives for supporting the Obama stimulus package, may defect from the GOP and potentially siphon away enough votes from the presumptive Republican nominee for a Democrat to win the general election:

• Rubio holds a virtually insurmountable 23 point lead (56% to 33%) over the governor in the race for the Republican nomination.(source)
  
  
• According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, a three way race would give Mr. Crist 32%, Mr. Rubio 30% and Democrat US Representative Kendrick Meek 24% if the election were held this week.(source)
  
  
• Former senator and close Crist friend Connie Mack resigned yesterday as chairman of the governor's Senate campaign to protest Crist's Thursday veto of a bill that would have tied teacher pay and job security to student test scores. (source)
  
  

When asked again today to clarify whether or not he was considering an Independent bid, Mr. Crist responded, "No, not really." As anyone who pays attention to such things knows, the Political Weaselspeak to English translation of that statement is "Of course I am!"