November 07, 2006 02:39 AM UTC

Florida Republican Ditches Bush

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Bush was in Greeley over the weekend for a rally for Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave – a rally for which Musgrave did attend. But in Florida, Republican candidate Charlie Crist decided not to show up at Bush’s side:

The White House did not hide its irritation today at Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist for ducking President Bush at a campaign rally in the Republican-friendly Panhandle.

Crist said he considered the Pensacola area so firmly in his camp that it made more sense to campaign elsewhere in the state as the race to replace outgoing Gov. Jeb Bush tightened.

On a tarmac in Texas where the president boarded Air Force One for the trip east, Bush political strategist Karl Rove mockingly questioned what kind of alternate rally Crist could put together that would rival the expected 10,000-person crowd that Bush was expected to draw at the Pensacola Civic Center.

The White House already had distributed schedules saying Crist would introduce Bush at the rally.