We told you that Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist (R) wasn’t planning to hobnob with the president when he came to Florida this week. But even we are astounded at Charlie’s excuse for not welcoming the president to his state.

And so this idea that we’re suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we’re going to purge the party of anybody who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent — that guarantees Obama’s re-election. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party.

— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News.

Now that Fox is officially the GOP informercial network, it has lost its top spot in news channel rankings, leaving the field to MSNBC. The real upset is that CNN is in last place in a three-way race with MSNBC and HLN because Anderson Cooper, Larry King and Lou Dobbs are losing their time slots.

In the eastern zone of El Salvador there have been reports of four patients with simultaneous infection of influenza A (H1N1) and classical dengue fever, confirmed by the Vice Minister of Health Eduardo Espinoza.

Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we’ll decide, if there’s a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there’s not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won’t.

— Newt Gingrich, asked if was going to run for president in 2012 on C-SPAN this morning.

When the nation’s largest solar electric generating plant goes online outside a small, sun-baked Florida town this week you’d expect Gov. Charlie Crist, who would push your paraplegic mother out of the way if she were blocking his photo op, to be there smiling for the cameras and taking credit for Florida’s accomplishment. You’d be wrong.

A new poll on the Florida Senate race supports the idea that Republicans are dissatisfied with their party because it’s not conservative enough. Gov. Charlie Crist, the so-called moderate, is getting chomped by the so-called conservative, former State House Speaker Marco Rubio.

“Who cares what – Yeah, yeah, I can see the headline now. I’m getting better, guys. I’m getting a little better, you know what I mean?”

Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in response to reporters asking about criticism of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policies from former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

As some Republican senators have said publicly — that if we kill Obama on this, and we destroy this, and we defeat this, that will drive a stake through the political heart of this administration. I just find that about as irresponsible of a thing as I can think of.

— Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), quoted by The Hill, on the health care reform efforts.