Jigsaw Politics

Crist has enjoyed strong job approval ratings since he became governor, with appeal to many independents and Democrats. This is in large part because his approach, though for the most part right-leaning, is relatively non-ideological. And that's why national and state Republican officials beseeched Crist to run for the Senate seat left open by retiring Republican Mel Martinez, rather than going for a second term as governor that appeared his for the asking.

But Crist infuriated many conservative activists in February when he endorsed the Democrats' economic stimulus plan -- describing it as necessary to address the deep recession affecting Florida and the rest of the nation -- and appeared with Obama at a Florida rally to build support for the measure.

If the Democrats are "socialists" in the eyes of these conservative Republicans, then Crist's actions made him a fellow traveler.

Thus the outraged response when the Senate Republicans' campaign wing, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), immediately followed Crist's Senate candidacy announcement earlier this month with an endorsement -- and politely suggested that a previously announced and more conservative Senate contender, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, should be a good boy and clear the field for Crist.

There is now a group on the Facebook social networking site called "Not One Penny to the National Republican Senatorial Committee" -- promoted by conservative blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com -- and a "Not One Red Cent" blog, both calling on contributors to boycott the NRSC over the Crist endorsement.

John Hawkins, founder of RightWingNews.com, is demanding that Texas Sen. John Cornyn to resign his position as NRSC chairman for the 2010 cycle.

The problem for the GOP's "pragmatic" strategists is that those angry grass-roots folks, while shaking their fists at the Democrats who currently dominate the federal government, are no more receptive to taking candidate instructions from leaders of their own party in Washington.

So that tent the Republican Party insiders are trying to build must not only be big, but strong enough to withstand the whirlwind that these same party leaders have unleashed on the right.