U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek held a roundtable with the Capitol press corps this morning and came out swinging at Gov. Charlie Crist.

Meek, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, slammed Crist, a Republican who’s losing traction in a GOP primary against former House Speaker Marco Rubio, for his turn-around on abortion and his failed health care program that has been ignored by uninsured Floridians.

“Overall I think the governor’s a very nice person,” Meek, a former state legislator who is in his fourth term in Congress, began. “I don’t think he’s prepared to lead this state in the United States Senate. One, he doesn’t like to make a decision. Two, he’s very vague. And three, I believe he’s more politician than leader.”

When campaigning for governor, Crist side-stepped questions about changing abortion laws. But his campaign this morning issued a press release saying Crist would “fight for pro-life legislative efforts” if elected to the U.S. Senate.

“If any Floridian was to ask the governor, ‘How do you feel about health care?’ the governor’s response would be, ‘How do you feel about health care?’ That’s the politics that should not be involved in leadership here,” Meek said.

“The voters are going to have to make a decision on who they want. Do they want someone who’s going to tell them what they feel they need to hear at this moment or if they’re going to be true and precise.

“He is in a Republican primary right now so he’s going to cater to voters that he feels are going to turn out in that Republican primary who feel strongly about whatever issue that may be the issue of the day,” Meek said.

Crist opposes the federal health care reforms Meek back but fewer than 5,000 of the 5.8 million uninsured Floridians have enrolled in Crist’s own “Cover Florida” plan for insurance coverage.

“It’s irresponsible for the governor to even mention Cover Florida as an answer to Florida’s uninsured…It may be something good for a press release but it’s not an answer,” Meek said, calling Crist’s plan “dismal.”

Meek said that the anti-incumbent sentiment that played a part in several prominent Democratic U.S. senators’ decision not to seek reelection should not have an impact on his campaign.

He’s trying to get on the ballot by gathering nearly 150,000 petitions from voters, something that’s never been done before in a statewide campaign.

Meek pointed to his statewide class size limit constitutional campaign opposed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush as evidence that he’s accustomed to taking on a big election challenge and can win.

“I considered myself mavericky before Sarah Palin ever got on the national scene,” he quipped.

Tags: 2010 campaigns, abortion, Charlie Crist, health care, Health Reform, Kendrick Meek, Marco Rubio, U.S. Senate

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 11:25 am and is filed under 2010 campaigns, Charlie Crist, Kendrick Meek, U.S. Senate, elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.