On Cuba, Crist again turns away from GOP

As he positions himself for an independent run for the U.S. Senate, Gov. Charlie Crist is making enemies of friends comfortable with him when he was comfortably a Republican standard-bearer.

Turn away from education reformers like Jeb Bush by vetoing Senate Bill 6, the teacher tenure bill. Check.

Turn away from anti-abortion activities by vetoing a bill requiring women to obtain an ultrasound before they have an abortion. Check.

And now, Crist has turned his back on one of the most reliably Republican -- albeit not monolithic -- constituencies in the state, Cuban Americans, by agreeing to a fundraiser hosted by people in favor of lifting sanctions on the communist regime in Havana, including a business owner who runs air charters to the island.

"I want to listen to to what they have to say," Crist told the Miami Herald.

State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, an anti-Castro hardliner -- and close ally of presumptive GOP Senate nominee Marco Rubio -- said Crist's apparent change of heart on Cuba is more of the same from the governor.

"As with most things, Charlie is all over the place on the Cuba issue," Rivera said.

Crist hasn't given Fidel or Raul Castro an Obama-like hug, but Rivera sounds like he wouldn't be surprised if a photograph of such a meeting popped up.

"The fact that he would now seek to raise campaign funds from Castro's business partners is an affront to freedom loving people everywhere," Rivera said. "He is now on the record as cavorting with collaborators of a communist dictatorship."

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