Challenging Charlie Crist's credibility, NBC News' David Gregory hammered away at the independent Senate candidate's "evolving" positions on a host of issues Tuesday night.
In the Senate campaign's final televised debate, shown on WESH in Orlando and streamed on the NBC station's internet site, Crist took the brunt of Gregory's tough questions while Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek lobbed in more attacks from the right and left.
Gregory peppered Crist with inquiries about the governor's increasingly liberal views on homosexual issues such as adoption and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
The moderator also pinned Crist down to the Republican Party platform, asking how the governor could call the GOP "too far right" when he embraced the party's conservative anti-abortion planks just two years earlier.
Crist responded that his "convergence of life experience and wisdom" brought him to new levels of "tolerance" and "flexibility" -- traits that he said party politicians do not have. "I'm liberated and I'm free. ... It's called being honest," he said.
"I'm like most of Florida," Crist said of his pragmatism. Then, harkening back to his days as a college quarterback, he added, "Sometimes you just have to call an audible."
While Gregory continued probing what he suggested was Crist's "pattern of expediency," Rubio derided the governor's explanations as "silly."
"(Crist) switched (from the GOP) because he couldn't win the primary," the former Florida House speaker said.
Meek was similarly dismissive.
"Every time I hear the sound of flip-flops coming down the hallway, I think it's the governor," the Miami congressman said.
On the heels of equally rough debate performances, Crist was on the defensive for much of Tuesday night's showdown.
Rubio, the front-runner in the Senate race, resurrected the governor's controversial proposal to give amnesty to illegal immigrants as a way to bolster the Social Security system.
Crist denied that he supports amnesty and instead called his plan "an earned path to citizenship."
But Crist sounded indistinguishable from Democrats, saying the Social Security system is financially sound until 2037 and that he opposes any adjustment to eligibility ages in the meantime.
Rubio, who favors incremental upward adjustments for citizens under age 55, likened the Crist-Democrat do-nothing approach to "sticking one's head in the sand."
Meek, who is running third in the polls, charged that "Crist believes what the GOP believes" and predicted that Democratic voters won't buy Crist's policy shifts on Election Day.
Dodging one last question, Crist again refused to say which party he would caucus with if he were to become Florida's junior senator.
"It depends on the outcome," Crist told Gregory. "I will ask (each party) what they are going to do for Florida."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
