Some legitimate congratulations are in order. I would like to extend my best wishes to Florida's soon-to-be newest member of Congress in George LeMieux. Regardless of his politics or the nature of his appointment, George is by all accounts an intelligent, articulate and highly respected man in Tallahassee. I do wish him the best.

And perhaps an even more unpopular congratulatory (and quite sincere) gesture to Governor Crist. Charlie was faced with a most awkward dilemma in Senator Mel Martinez's very sudden resignation. Charlie is only the third Governor in Florida history who has needed to appoint a United States Senator. And he is one of the only (if not THE only) Governors in all of American history to have to appoint a Senator to fill a seat for which he himself was running. The appointment certainly had the potential to frustrate and anger a good many people no matter who he picked. Indeed, in the final rounds, former House Representative Clay Shaw was undone by the wrath of the state chapter of the NRA for backing the assault weapons ban in 1994.

Yet he somehow managed to take a potential political nightmare and turn it into a media bonanza for himself. He assembled a list of ten locally popular Republicans from all of the state's major metropolitan areas (Jennifer Carroll and John Delaney - Jacksonville; Mike Bilirakis - Tampa/St. Pete; Shaw and LeMieux - Miami/Ft. Lauderdale; Lou Frey and Dan Webster - Orlando). He booked interviews with all of these men in their local areas to ensure plenty of local earned media opportunities. He captured the attention of the state's top political writers, all desperate for something to occupy their time in an off year. And when all was said and done, he appoints a man that he trusts and will most certainly not run against him in the 2010 Republican primary.

That's not to say he is a total winner in this whole thing. There are plenty of people who are happy to be mad about the appointment of Mr. LeMieux. Florida Democrats have a piece of red meat to throw at the base about political cronyism in Tallahassee (sour grapes over losing their monopoly on that in the 1990s, perhaps?). Grassroots conservatives will remain bitter and upset at Crist, particularly for his snub of fellow conservatives like Carroll and Webster. And the media remains quite unimpressed with Crist; even his hometown newspaper, the St Petersburg Times, is throwing a conniption fit over his "taxpayer funded" travels to meet his candidates. Some way to show gratefulness for giving their reporters something to do in these typically miserably slow August news days.

But the common thread here is that few of the current complainants were going to be pleased with anyone Crist appointed. Democrats have 2 inch-thick binders on all ten of his finalists. Conservatives would come to view Crist as a panderer if he picked someone they liked. And news reporters just plain don't like Republicans. Given all that, there was little potential gain for Crist to pick someone he didn't like or trust just to make people who don't like him and never will like him happy. At the end of the day, the only opinion that really was worth much to Charlie was Charlie's opinion.

And thus the rat race ends. Crist built up goodwill by going through a long and arduous process and making a pick that politically should have been much more difficult that it ultimately turned out to be. He may have given prospective opponents Kendrick Meek and Marco Rubio another bullet to fire his way come election season, but it can be easily deflected with a simple "I did my job and appointed a capable man that I trust". Democrats and their attack lines can be similarly dispatched with. And when all is said and done, it's 12 months until anybody even votes for Charlie Crist again. Most voters just are not all that engaged in the whole process right now and frankly could give a rat's about the give and take of Tallahassee politics. And I have the turnout statistics to prove it. Not to mention Crist 60+% approval ratings amongst Republican primary voters right now.

But I certainly could be wrong. I don't have a dog in the Senate primary hunt right now, so it's no skin off my nose if Charlie benefits or suffers from this whole appointment issue. And for all I know, Senator-designate LeMieux's consulting gigs with a number of clients could prove to be an issue for either him or his former boss down the road. And ultimately there is the matter of how LeMieux conducts himself in the Senate. Will he be his own man? How will he vote on cap and tax or ObamaCare? Will the tables turn and Charlie Crist be whispering in his ear from time to time, as George did to him so many times? Those will likely be the more impactful issues facing this appointment, rather than the appointment itself. And only time will tell how those questions are eventually answered.

And until then, Floridians should at least give George LeMieux some respect and wish him the best of luck as our next Senator, even if merely a caretaker Senator. He's going to need it.

(Image: St. Pete Times - damn good newspaper, though liberal as all get out)