Govenor Charlie Crist has made his choice to replace Senator Mel Martinez, who is resigning.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced Friday he will appoint George LeMieux, his former chief of staff, to succeed Sen. Mel Martinez after the Republican incumbent resigns his seat in early September.

LeMieux, who ran Crist’s successful 2006 campaign for governor, currently serves as the chairman of the law firm Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, which has offices in major cities across Florida.

I don’t know anything about LeMieux, but I’ll be looking. If you know anything about the appointee, please leave a comment.

I hope, and will be working to ensure, that Marco Rubio will be replacing LeMieux in 2010. You can follow @MarcoRubio on Twitter. For anyone in the Lakeland area of Central Florida, Rubio will be speaking at a luncheon in Lakeland on September 2nd. I will be there. Will you?

UPDATE: LeMieux is reported to have remarked that he, “is a Charlie Crist Republican” following the announcement of his appointment. Well that’s not good news.

UPDATE II: Rubio calls the choice “disappointing.”

“This is a disappointing pick for Florida. George LeMieux is a talented political operative and the governor’s best friend, but that doesn’t make him the right choice to represent Florida in the Senate. Governor Crist had a wealth of consistent and principled conservative candidates to choose from, all of whom would have been a reliable check and balance on the excesses of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda.”

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Florida Governor Charlie Crist is expected to announce that he will be running for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. According to a Politico article,

But while Crist is a brand-name recruit with sky-high approval ratings and bipartisan appeal, his path to keeping the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez in GOP hands has at least one significant roadblock: Sunshine State conservatives.

Despite Crist’s widespread popularity, he faces a primary in which he will have to make his case to a restless GOP base dissatisfied with his high-profile advocacy for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and his handling of the state’s budget woes.

I have to admit that I voted for Governor Crist. I’ve been less than pleased by the results. His “moderate” stances on a myriad of issues are quite disappointing and they are not what a revitalized GOP needs.

Crist will be facing conservative opposition in the primary. Former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio has announced his run:

(h/t Gordon Cafe/@conservateacher)

More from Politico:

Florida GOP operatives believe that Rubio has the potential to be a formidable opponent, if he can raise the millions of dollars necessary to compete against a governor with a wide fundraising network in Tallahassee.They acknowledge that knocking Crist off would be very difficult, with public polls showing the governor with approval ratings in the mid-60s and support from Democrats and independents that most Republicans can only dream of.

But they also point to a growing undercurrent of mainstream conservative dissatisfaction, beginning with Crist’s decision to appear at a February rally alongside Obama to raise support for the stimulus. Over the past several months, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has railed against Crist over his plans to control property insurance premiums and his support for higher government spending.

“Crist doesn’t represent a right-wing philosophy or a left-wing philosophy. He represents no philosophy,” said Ana Navarro, a leading GOP fundraiser in Florida who has been one of Crist’s most outspoken Republican critics.

It is going to be an interesting primary. I am sure both the primary and the general election are going to attract national attention. And national money. The Dems would love to pick up this seat. Barring that they would love to see another Dem Lite Republican holding the office. That’s not what we need. It is time to stand on conservative principles. The GOP primary is going to be a battle.

Rumored for some weeks now, AP is reporting:

Mel Martinez, the public face of the Republican National Committee as its general chairman, announced Friday he was stepping down from his post after serving only 10 months.

“I believe that our future as a party and nation is bright and I have every intention of continuing to fight for our president, our party and our candidates,” the Florida senator said in a statement.

Martinez said he was relinquishing the post to spend more time focusing on his constituents and because the RNC had achieved the objective he set when he assumed the job in January.

“It was my goal as general chairman to lead the party as it established the structure and raised the resources necessary to support our presidential candidate and ensure Republican victories next November. I believe we have accomplished those goals,” Martinez said.

More, if possible, as I find it.

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Blue Crab Boulevard Ahmadinejad Issues Orders To Democrats — AFP buries it to the bottom of a story on Iran’s latest announcements on their nuclear plans. Those plans are quite chilling enough, mind you. Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad informed the world yesterday that they intend to put 60,000 centrifuges into operation. For those who don’t quite grasp what that means, it means a weapons program. There is no reason to have that capacity for civilian fuel. But that isn’t even the best part of the story. Waaaaaaaay down at the bottom, Ahmadinejad issues explicit instructions for the Democrats who just won the elections:”

Iowa Voice (Brian) Martinez: “I Won’t Be An Attack Dog” — “I tell you what’s going to happen in 2008 if this guy is running the show (while at the same time not running it, since he’s not leaving his job in the Senate): the Democrats will kick our teeth in AGAIN with their “attack dogs” (which is, basically, every liberal in America), and they won’t be doing any soul-searching as to whether or not they should do it.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) And Now It Seems Withdrawal Is … Bad — “After leading the charge to retreat from Iraq and declare victory with our backup lights lit, the New York Times now discovers that most military experts — including critics of the Busg administration’s handling of post-war Iraq — believe a drawdown will touch off a civil war, not avoid one. While Carl Levin and Jack Reed try to fine-tune a Senate resolution so that retreat doesn’t sound like retreat, Anthony Zinni and John Batiste point out that lowering the security forces in Baghdad will make violence increase, not decrease:”

Michelle Malkin San Francisco kills JROTC program — “”San Francisco values” prevailed last night. Some 1,600 students of all backgrounds will now be robbed of a valuable training program that immunized them against the anti-military hatred that infests the Bay Area:”