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May 07--Democrat Charlie Crist is offering up a new and inflammatory reason he left the GOP: Too many Republicans oppose President Obama because he's black.

Crist made the remarks Tuesday in an interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos that instantly drew rebukes from Republicans who said the party-switching former governor was playing the race card.

But Crist said the bigotry against Obama was a "big reason" for his decision to leave the party.

"I couldn't be consistent with myself and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president, I'll just go there," Crist said. "I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was intolerable to me."

Ramos said Crist left the GOP to run as an independent because he was losing the 2010 Senate Republican primary to Marco Rubio. But Crist denied it.

Crist has made race an on-again and off-again theme as he campaigns for his old job back as a Democrat, his third party affiliation. When he left the GOP four years ago, he didn't mention race.

"Being a flip-flopper is bad enough, but playing the race card to win over voters is pitiful," said Izzy Santa, Republican National Committee spokeswoman.

Crist, saying he was "liberated as a Democrat," also bashed the GOP for being too inflexible and for appearing to be "anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, [and] anti-gay."

Black voters are particularly important to Crist. They comprise 28 percent of the 4.1 million active registered Democrats in Florida, and he still has to beat former state Sen. Nan Rich in a party primary before facing Gov. Rick Scott.

In a general election, black voters are key for Democrats. Along with Hispanics, African-American voters have disproportionately stayed home during midterm elections, allowing more Republican-leaning white voters to dominate and elect GOP office holders. Black and Hispanic voters each account for about 14 percent of all active registered voters.

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Charlie Crist Slams Racists, Sexists, Homophobes in GOP

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said in an interview Tuesday that the primary reason he left the Republican Party is because of its intolerable racism.

The Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat told Fusion TVs Jorge Ramos that he saw so much hostility toward President Obama that he just couldnt take it anymore.

Theyre perceived now as being anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-gay, anti-education, anti-environment, he said. I just wasnt comfortable.

I couldnt be consistent with myself and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president, Ill just go there, he said.

I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was intolerable to me I couldnt take it anymore, he added. I am liberated as a Democrat, my true soul is able to be seen, and I couldnt be happier about it.

Mr. Crist is running again for governor and currently has a double-digit lead in at least one poll over Gov. Rick Scott, Fusion noted.

The Democrat has faced criticism for flip-flopping on many major issues, and Republicans are calling his racism claims dishonest.

Being a flip-flopper is bad enough, but playing the race card to win over voters is pitiful, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Izzy Santa said in an email to Fusion.

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Democrat Charlie Crist: I left GOP due to 'intolerable' racism

Democrat Charlie Crist is offering up a new and inflammatory reason he left the GOP: Too many Republicans oppose President Barack Obama because he's black.

Crist made the remarks Tuesday in an interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos that instantly drew rebukes from Republicans who said the party-switching former governor was playing the race card.

Crist said the bigotry against Obama was a "big reason" for his decision to leave the party.

"I couldn't be consistent with myself and my core beliefs and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president, I'll just go there," Crist said. "I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was intolerable to me."

Ramos said Crist left the GOP to run as an independent because he was losing the 2010 Senate Republican primary to Marco Rubio. But Crist denied it.

Crist has made race an on-again and off-again theme as he campaigns for his old job back as a Democrat. When he left the GOP four years ago, he didn't mention race.

"Being a flip-flopper is bad enough, but playing the race card to win over voters is pitiful," said Izzy Santa, Republican National Committee spokeswoman.

Crist, saying he was "liberated as a Democrat," also bashed the GOP for being too inflexible and for appearing to be "anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, (and) anti-gay."

Black voters are particularly important to Crist. They comprise 28 percent of the 4.1 million active registered Democrats in Florida, and he still has to beat former state Sen. Nan Rich in a party primary before facing Gov. Rick Scott.

Crist has generally good relationships with black voters and leaders. He probably had the highest proportion of African-American support of any Republican when he won the governor's office in 2006.

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Bigotry by GOP fueled desire to switch, Crist says

Butler Derrick, a 10-term South Carolina Democrat who won election to the U.S. House as a Watergate baby from the Class of 1974, worked to preserve his states fraying textile industry and made a surprise decision to support gun-control laws, died May 5 at his home in Easley, S.C. He was 77.

The cause was cancer, said John Gregory, a former congressional aide.

Mr. Derrick was among the many Democrats swept into office after the Watergate political scandal that led to President Richard M. Nixons resignation in August 1974.

Mr. Derrick became the senior House Democrat from South Carolina by the time he declined to seek reelection in 1994. He was the last Democrat to date to represent the 3rd District a western swath that included communities such as Aiken and Anderson. Amid the Republican resurgence of 1994, Lindsey O. Graham, now a U.S. senator, won Mr. Derricks House seat.

During his tenure on Capitol Hill, Mr. Derrick seldom frequented public affairs shows. But he rose steadily through the ranks to become, by the early 1990s, a chief deputy whip of his party and a ranking member on the House Rules Committee. He also served many years on the Budget Committee.

As chairman of the Congressional Textile Caucus, he worked effectively on a bill to impose quotas on cheap imports competing with the major but increasingly beleaguered textile industry in the South.

He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994. Mr. Derrick said the agreement would threaten the remaining textile and apparel jobs in his district.

Mr. Derrick often voted with Democrats on environmental and nuclear energy policy because his district was home to several nuclear facilities.

He also sided with Democrats on defense and military-spending issues as well as on abortion rights. Aware of his districts growing conservative constituency, however, he supported the death penalty.

Mr. Derrick, a longtime National Rifle Association supporter, broke with the organization in the early 1990s to support gun control legislation. He voted to pass the Brady Bill named after former presidential press secretary James S. Brady, who was seriously injured in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

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Butler Derrick dies at 77; former South Carolina congressman

Abhisit's proposal essentially is no different from the PDRC's on three issues - resignation by the caretaker prime minister and her Cabinet, formation of an interim government to carry out reforms, and postponement of the next election.

What differs is that Abhisit's proposal sets a shorter timeframe than the PDRC's. The ruling Pheu Thai Party found Abhisit's proposal was unacceptable. Pheu Thai wanted a clear date for the next election. They questioned the practicality of Abhisit's proposal and also branded it unconstitutional.

Pheu Thai instead issued its proposal for a way out of the deadlock. Unveiled by Noppadon Pattama, a spokesman for ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the five-point proposal called on all political parties to contest the next election and promise reforms in their campaign.

Pheu Thai's proposal also called on a reform council to be set up after the election, a new post-election government to focus on reforms and to be in power for six to 12 months, and to hold a national referendum on reforms that required constitutional amendments.

Another proposal came from Gothom Arya, director of Mahidol University's Research Centre for Peace Building. He suggested that a joint committee of members from both Pheu Thai and Democrat parties draft a reform-council proposal containing ideas from the Reform Now Network, the PDRC, and the pro-government United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship. He said there should be a referendum on the reform-council ideas, along with the next election.

For Gothom, the proposal for an unelected, neutral prime minister was unconstitutional.

He suggested a deputy prime minister should be appointed to head the caretaker cabinet during the reform period while the prime minister took a long leave.

He asked both Abhisit and outgoing prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to get closely involved in the process of gathering reform ideas from their political parties. Judging from the proposals offered above, there is no lack of ideas for ways out for our country, although some proposed solutions may be more "democratic" or more practical than others.

What is important is that the conflicting parties should admit that nobody could take all or lose nothing in a negotiation. To allow the country to move forward, they should give priority to the country's benefit and reach an accord as soon as possible.

Time is running out.

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Many ideas, but time's running out for an accord