Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) has taken a lot of heat from the right about his embrace of Obama’s stimulus package, fueling a right-wing challenge from former state Speaker Marco Rubio’s (R) in his senatorial campaign.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) came to Crist’s defense yesterday, telling the St. Petersburg Times that, while Rubio is “mounting a serious threat,” he still thinks Crist “will win.” Asked if Crist’s support for the stimulus was a political mistake, McCain dodged the question, saying, “I don’t know.” McCain explained, “I haven’t kept up enough to really know about that. I can’t judge other people.”

But McCain had a much clearer opinion on the stimulus just two weeks ago when he appeared on Don Imus’ radio program:

IMUS: Did you support that bill?

MCCAIN: Hell no.

IMUS: I don’t think you have to swear at me Senator when I’m just asking a…

MCCAIN: I’m not swearing at you. I’m swearing I would’ve had to have been smoking something pretty strong to have voted for that outrageous use of taxpayers’ dollars.

Watch it:

It seems unlikely that McCain wouldn’t “really know about” the politics surrounding Crist’s endorsement of stimulus. The governor was a key early supporter of the plan and helped pitch it at a high-profile February town hall with President Obama in Ft. Myers. Caving to right-wing attacks, Crist has since tried to walk back his support of the measure, telling CNN last month that he never “endorsed” the stimulus. His flip-flop “made headlines all over Florida” and has been, perhaps, the most important issue driving Rubio’s unlikely lead in the Senate race. As the St. Petersburg Times notes, McCain is likely ignoring the facts to defend his “pal” because McCain “won Florida [in the 2008 GOP primary] in part due to Crist’s endorsement.”

Ironically for Crist, he is distancing himself from the stimulus at the same time it is bearing fruit. Approximately 600,000 to 1.6 million jobs have been created or saved nationally through September, according to the CBO. And nearly $7 billion has flowed from the stimulus into Florida, helping to create or save approximately 29,000 jobs. (State officials put the number closer to 47,000.) Meanwhile the nation’s economy grew during the third quarter of 2009, and job losses have slowed from 652,000 in March to only 11,000 in November.

On Feb. 23, Public Policy Polling released a survey showing that only 37 percent of women held a favorable opinion of hate radio host Rush Limbaugh, compared to 56 percent of men. Limbaugh was baffled by these results and decided to hold a “female summit” to find out why women hate him. Maybe, Limbaugh should just listen to his own show. Today, for example, Limbaugh griped that health insurance premiums will be going up if reform legislation is passed, in large part because private insurers will have to provide “women’s issues coverage”:

LIMBAUGH: About the premiums going up, and my brilliant dissertation on why prices will go up in the private sector, even if the public option is not there, and even if the Medicare buy-in is not there. It’s not just preconditions that are mandated to be covered in the health care bills in either the House or the Senate.

There was a recent amendment that was mandating private insurers to provide mammogram and other women’s issues coverage, including spousal abuse! Insurance for spousal abuse! And mammograms! Even though the mammogram age has been raised to the age of 50. You think of all the mandates that will be added onto private insurance, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Listen here:

Right now, many insurers treat domestic violence as a pre-existing condition and deny women health insurance coverage if they have been a victim. Women are also denied coverage — or face significantly higher premiums — if they are pregnant or have had a C-Section pregnancy in the past; the health care reform legislation would ban this discrimination. Additionally, an amendment by Sen. Barbara Milkulski’s (D-MD) amendment would make sure that insurers often women free mammograms and other preventive services.