Charlie Crist leaving the GOP?

Jack Funari at the Sun Sentinel (FL) is reporting that Florida governor and Senate candidate Charlie Crist is going to leave the Republican party (H/T HotAir):

Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate.

With Crist trailing Marco Rubio by 18 points in the latest polls, the Crist campaign has been in panic mode, launching attack after attack on the conservative Rubio.

Yesterday, the attacks reached a crescendo with the Crist campaign, and/or his disgraced Republican Party of Florida thug bootlickers, leaking Rubio's credit card expenses from his time as speaker of the Florida House.

According to published reports, the former RPOF chair, the bovine bully-boy buffoon Jim Greer, spent more in a month than Rubio did in his entire two years as state House speaker. If all the Crist campaign has on Rubio is $53.49 at Winn-Dixie in Miami for ``food” and a couple of plane tickets for his wife, then it's game, set and match, as far as the Republican primary for Senate is concerned.

From what's been made public, Rubio's credit card expenses make him the most frugal of the Republican leaders with RPOF credit cards.

The attacks are not having the desired effect on the conservative Republican base because Crist, and the people who enable and support him, have lost all credibility with the majority of activists and Republican primary voters throughout the state.

Another well-placed source tells me the reason several Crist campaign staffers left recently is because, being committed Republicans, they refused to take part in an independent Senate run by Crist. That’s not confirmed by an independent second source, but it does ring true.

If true, this will put John McCain in a tough spot.  He told The Hill today that he would be glad to try to help Crist get elected to the Senate. If he stands by his words and endorses Crist instead of Rubio, he will alienate more conservatives than he already has.