It seems a classic Charlie Crist move. Before South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint endorsed Marco Rubio today, he got an unsolicited phone call from the Florida governor and Republican senatorial candidate.

"I don't know how it came about," DeMint told reporters in Washington this afternoon, Rubio at his side in a park across the street from the Capitol. "We had a good conversation. I assured him that we're going to keep this positive and it'll be a good, healthy debate about what America needs right now and how the Republican Party can lead that effort."

That's not Crist, in DeMint's eyes. DeMint said he'll help Rubio raise money, speak on his behalf in D.C. and "travel to Florida if I get the chance."

"We've got a real diamond in our own back yard," DeMint told a dozen reporters. "And I'm convinced if he can win, and he should win, that he'll be one of the ones that help lead our party out of the wilderness and into the arms of waiting American people."

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