Posted on 03/04/2008 7:41:36 AM PST by Keltik
The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn't go away.
The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.
When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar's well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it.
He didn't.
Calderoni, who is gay, confirmed that Crist came into his bar quite often and that the two of them became friends.
Getting to the point, I asked him if he knew Crist to be gay.
"Yes," he answered bluntly. "I just wish he would come out and admit it. That would be a great thing if he did."
I asked Calderoni if he was certain that Crist is gay. He told me that Crist socialized with a gay clique of friends but conceded that he'd never actually seen Crist become intimate with another man.
So how can he be sure Crist is gay?
"The way he acted," Calderoni said.
How did he act?
Calderoni laughed and said, "Very feminine."
The Green Iguana owner then told me that he knew someone who could provide me more information and that he would have him call me. The call never came.
It wasn't proof. Just more circumstantial evidence that Florida's Republican governor is gay, a prevalent rumor in Tallahassee for years.
The topic may soon, however, get some national play. After helping to deliver Florida in the GOP primary, Crist is widely believed to be on the short list to become John McCain's nominee for vice president.
If he were to be chosen, imagine how interesting this presidential election would be. Not only would the American people be asked to vote for the first black president or female commander in chief, but, at least in terms of subtext, also the first gay vice president.
Are they ready for it? Do they even care?
Most voters will tell you they don't, that they couldn't care less about anyone's sexuality. Of course, they aren't telling the truth. Human nature demands that they at least be curious. But, absent a Jim McGreevy-/Mark Foley-/Larry Craig-type scandal, I don't think the issue would change an election. If anything, the buzz would only bring more intrigue to the candidate and possibly add to his support. Being boring is a lot bigger political sin than having sexual secrets in your closet. Americans knew full well that Bill Clinton was a poonhound before they elected him, didn't they?
Most Floridians had probably at least heard the rumors about Crist before they elected him governor. During the election, I reported about two male GOP staffers' boasts of having had affairs with Crist when he was running for governor in 2006. The stories burned across the internet and got a bit of play in the mainstream press. Crist won in a landslide anyway. Republicans homophobic? Not in Florida.
If McCain chooses Crist, it would be interesting to see how the voracious national press (as opposed to cautious Florida newspapers) would handle the issue. Would the New York Times put a small team of reporters on the story in an effort to dig up the truth?
I think so. Just last week, a writer with a major national magazine called me on the topic. He said he was doing a general piece about the recent spate of Republican outings and scandals, but the V.P. talk surely has given a bit of urgency to the project.
Finding the truth when it comes to Crist, though, is a slippery endeavor. For years, opposing candidates and private investigators have dug into the matter and found scintillating evidence. Just no proof.
My own efforts, as the Calderoni interview shows, have gone the same way. I began looking into the matter about 16 months ago, when a tipster in Fort Lauderdale told me that a young Republican aide had boasted to him at a dinner party that he was having an affair with Crist, who was then Florida's attorney general.
The tipster, who is gay, said he came forward because he found it terribly hypocritical that Crist opposed gay marriage and adoption by gay couples. Not to mention the whole pesky "living a lie" thing. I agreed, and before long, I had found numerous sources who said that GOP insiders Jason Wetherington and Bruce Carlton Jordan had boasted to them about romances with Crist.
Wetherington, who served as a regional director for Katherine Harris' U.S. Senate campaign and as a legislative aide for state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, denied that he'd had an affair with Crist (though, after I started asking questions, he was taken under the wing of Hollywood lawyer Todd Payne and moved to Georgia until the election was over. Payne, a real estate attorney, wouldn't comment).
Jordan's story runs a bit deeper. A member of the pioneering Crum family in Central Florida's Sumter County, he's a longtime Tallahassee political operator, a childhood friend of Harris', and a convicted felon. His most recent political title was executive director of the Florida Funeral Home Directors Association. It was in that capacity that he snagged Crist as a fill-in guest speaker for a convention after then-Gov. Jeb Bush suddenly canceled an event in 2003.
Two years later, Jordan was fired after it was discovered he'd stolen thousands of dollars from the association for personal vacations. He was also convicted of two theft-related felonies.
After his arrest, he went to his old friend Harris and asked if she needed a hand for her U.S. Senate campaign. She quickly hired him as her personal travel aide.
Then Jordan began telling other campaign workers about having a long-term romantic relationship with Crist, who was then running for governor. Among those he told was campaign pilot Jay Vass, who has worked for numerous GOP officials, including Jeb Bush, Tom Gallagher, and Crist himself.
What Jordan didn't know was that Vass was friends with Gallagher, who at the time was running against Crist in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Vass and his girlfriend, Dee Dee Hall, gave Gallagher sworn statements about Jordan's detailed admissions. Hall even sat down for a videotaped deposition, which I obtained, in which she said that Jordan had told her that Crist was undergoing counseling because he was so conflicted about the relationship.
Since reporting the stories, I have spoken with an ex-boyfriend of Jordan's, who said he too had heard of the affair. He told me that even before the affair allegedly began, Jordan boasted of his friendship with Crist. The ex-boyfriend, who traveled in Tallahassee political circles, said Jordan and Crist may have been introduced by a mutual friend named Jennifer Faga, a wealthy socialite from the Hamptons who owned land in Florida and who lived for a time in Tallahassee.
He said that Faga and Jordan both had crushes on Crist and that Jordan apparently won out. I contacted Faga on the phone and asked if she knew Crist.
"I'm going to say 'no comment' because I don't know what you're calling about," she said.
Then I asked her if she introduced Jordan to Crist.
"No comment," she said before hanging up.
Jordan's ex-boyfriend led me to a Florida lobbyist who he said knew more about Jordan's alleged affair with Crist. I called the lobbyist, who commented on the condition of anonymity. He said that Jordan was dating Crist through much of 2006. He said that Jordan shared details with him about what they did together and where they met (at Jordan's rented carriage house in Tallahassee's Southwood development).
He said he was with Jordan on several occasions when Crist would allegedly call. Jordan would tell him "It's Charlie" and then run off to meet him.
But the lobbyist never actually saw Jordan together with Crist. He said that, while he assumed his friend was telling the truth, he couldn't be sure. Jordan, he added, boasted about a lot of things he sometimes couldn't back up, and he turned out to be a thief.
Jordan, for all his blabbing, has been publicly silent on the issue. On both occasions that I reached him, the last time being last week, he quickly hung up on me. When I called Crist about Jordan and Wetherington before the election, he denied not only that he was gay but that he even remembered meeting either man.
So what does it all add up to? Well, one thing that is certain is that Jordan and Wetherington ran in rarefied Republican circles and told numerous people, in some detail, that they'd had romantic relationships with Crist.
I find it hard to believe that both of them were lying about it, but it's possible. Could be that Calderoni was mistaken about Crist as well. Maybe his gaydar was off. Weirder things have happened.
Oh, well. Nobody cares anyway, right?
I didn’t read the article ... is this McCains CHOICE for VP?
If so, he doesn’t want to win. He’s spitting on his base.
We have gone through extremes in the governor's office.
We had Jeb for 8 years and he was a governor to be proud of.
Now you're telling me we elected a 'rump ranger'....I should have caught on as it was widely known that he was still living with his parents (reminds me of that cranberry commercial).
Apparently in Florida, GOP means “Gay ‘Ol Party.” Mark Foley was from Florida as well. What is in the water down there?
Awww, C’mon! You HAVE a choice...between a Gay VICE president or a Gay PRESIDENT.....which would you choose? when has it NOT been a choice for the lesser of 2 evils? Just say’n
If Obama is the Dem nominee, McCain won’t need any help in Florida. He will win Florida in a landslide. If Hillary is the nominee, he might have a harder time.
No. Crist is too liberal to offer any help to McCain.
He would NOT be the first gay vice-president. Obviously you’ve never heard of Wlliam Rufus Devane King of Alabama?
You need do do a lot more research on the Bushes.
This is beginning to seems like a horrible joke.
A black, a woman and a gay man are on the presidential ticket....
Metrosexuality...
It’s all the rage down there, doncha know...
I hear rumblings he's not as conservative as some would like, and would be happy to hear more about that.
However, if McCain wants to secure FL, I would MUCH rather he pick JEB!
RINO McCain would never do anything that wasn't conservative would he?
I wonder how the Freepers who are supporting this puke will take this if it happens?
Will a fudgepacking VP be OK with them too, as long as he's a "Republican"? So far thats made them overlook all RINO McCain's other faults.
If I were to guess based on observations of Crist on TV, I’d say he’s definately light in hte loafers.
Scratch Crist off the list, but maybe Obama will put him in his cabinet.
Too bad Jeb’s last name is Bush or he would be perfect.
He’ll happily stick a needle in their eye and cater to everyone else. He doesn’t get it. The LEFT LOATHES him. No matter how many times he bends over for them, they’ll stick it to him. We won’t be voting for him. McCain is just another Demoncrat.
McCain is not going there.
McCain already came out in his vanity fair interview and stated he does not care about traditional marriage and homosexuals. For him it is a non-relevant issue and those who think otherwise can go to ...
Crist most certainly did not stand up for Terri Schiavo. Jeb tried for awhile, and he failed. He and Atty Gen. Crist chose not to have a showdown with a rogue judge in Pinellas County (Charlie’s home county). A disabled woman was euthanized and Charlie did nothing to stop it.
http://www.lifenews.com/bio65.html
Good grief. I was depressed enough before reading this.
Crist is a flaming liberal in any case, well to the left of RINO McCain. He’s the last thing McCain needs as VP, I don’t care how much he owes him for throwing Florida to the dogs.
No he didn't. He was MIA.
Guess he was too busy snipping bits out of his version of the FL constitution.
They're full of weenines saying "Oh no - She might come back and beat us!"
Maybe they're right if RINO McCain goes with this guy.
When you have a moment, please pass me some more popcorn!!!!
Which pretty much guarantees McCain will pick him. McCain is like Caesar—he has no principles beyond his personal dignitas. Conservatives have offended him, and therefore they must be punished and forced to bend the knee. McCain will pick the most liberal VP candidate possible to shame and demoralize conservatives to the maximum extent he can. He wants to know, and more importantly he wants you to know, that ever single conservative vote he gets was taken by force, not earned.
That explains the courting with Julie-Annie and the the endorsement for McCain.
I'm sure RINO McCain has a few people sniffing around on FR to see how he's doing with the right.
That's an easy way of letting them know.
Just as a historical note — we probably had a Gay President, and a Gay Vice-President, and they were roommates.
The president was bachelor James Buchanan - and his love interest was the preceding vice-president, Buchanan’s bachelor roommate, Rufus King.
From “Our Queer President”
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Oct. 15, 1999
Buchanan, gay? Who’d have thought? Anyone who bothered to look into his living arrangements, says James W. Loewen, an adjunct professor of sociology at Catholic University. ...
Buchanan’s long-time living companion, William Rufus King, was referred to by critics as his “better half”, “his wife”, “Aunt Fancy”.
Around Washington, the pair were known as the “Siamese twins”; slang at the time for gays and lesbians. And when King was appointed envoy to France, in 1844, Buchanan lamented to a friend that “I have gone wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any of them.” The relationship may have been more than romantic.
Mr. Loewen speculates that Buchanan, a native of a fiercely anti-slavery section of Pennsylvania, developed pro-slavery views out of sympathy with King, who served as a Democratic Senator from Alabama....
Background
You might think from the preceding Chronicle article that James Buchanan is gay, end of story. In fact matters are a little more complicated and an answer is hard to find. There are very few primary sources about James Buchanan because he ordered that his letters be burnt upon his death. (pp. 73-74)
...
It might be more helpful to separate the “Was Buchanan gay?” question into two parts. One, did he love men instead of women, and two, did he in fact follow his passions.
The answer to the second question would seem to be “no”. His fiancee, Ann Coleman was of course exactly the sort of girl that a good-looking, brilliant, young lawyer would try to marry. She was rich, she was beautiful. Her family, owning a musket-making concern, was one of the wealthiest families in Pennsylvania. ...
.... quotes a contemporary who notes that Buchanan had “a likeness of the late Vice-President King, whom he loved (and who did not?). He declared that he was the purist public man that he ever knew, and that during his intimate acquaintance of thirty years he had never known him to perform a selfish act.” (King was vice-president under Pierce, who served immediately before Buchanan.
Incidentally, while Buchanan was the only bachelor president, King was the only bachelor vice president.) ...
Other authors have noted that Senator King was called “Miss Nancy” by Andrew Jackson, “Mrs. James Buchanan” by James K. Polk’s law partner, and “Buchanan’s better half” and “Aunt Fancy” by others. Senator King was noted for his “fastidious habits and conspicuous intimacy with bachelor Buchanan.”
It’s not clear whether the cruel jibes were based on the facts of the Buchanan-King friendship (meaning they were gay) or if the two of them stayed fast friends precisely because of the bullying from other frontier politicians (meaning that they might not have been).
It’s also possible that perhaps King was gay, and Buchanan was not, and that was what led to their intense friendship. Did Buchanan Love Women? As to the first question, whether Buchanan loved women or not, he certainly put work into landing a good one. One possibility is that he consciously or unconsciously pursued women who were “objectively” good rather than trying to find love with a woman. Ann Coleman certainly met that description.
As Klein put it, “That she remained unmarried at twenty-three may have been because she was emotionally unstable, but more likely it was due to the stubborn insistence of her parents that she make an advantageous marriage.”
At the time people doubted that Buchanan truly loved her; after her death, contemporary Hannah Cochran noted that “he secluded himself for a few days and then sallied forth as bold as ever.” Buchanan years later explained to Samuel L. M. Barlow that his vigorous entry into politics so soon after his fiancee’s death was a distraction from my great grief, and because I saw that through a political following I could secure the friends I then needed.”
What he said is certainly plausible. Buchanan was widely blamed for Ann Coleman’s death, and he had very few friends in town subsequently. On the other hand, it is also possible that perhaps he did not truly love her, though he had convinced himself he did.
Letter from Buchanan to Robert Coleman
To qualify what Hannah Cochran said, it might be helpful to include one of the few surviving letters written by James Buchanan. This letter was written after Ann Coleman’s sudden death, in it, he pleads with her father to allow him to go to her funeral. In fact, the letter was turned away at the door.
In it, he alludes to his notoriety, which probably refers to his boozing at taverns rather than rumors of gay love affairs. As an aside, I heard about this letter from one of the indirect descendants of Ann Coleman... This letter was written December 10, 1819.
My dear Sir: You have lost a child, a dear, dear child. I have lost the only earthly object of my affections, without whom life now presents to me a dreary blank. My prospects are all cut off, and I feel that my happiness will be buried with her in the grave. It is now no time for explanation, but the time will come when you discover that she, as well as I, have been much abused. God forgive the authors of it. My feelings of resentment towards them, whoever they may be, are buried in the dust.
I have now one request to make, and, for love of God and of your dear, departed daughter whom I loved infinitely more than any other human being could love, deny my not. Afford me the melancholy pleasure of seeing her body before its interment. I would not for the world be denied this request. I might make another, but, from the misrepresentations which must have been made to you, I am almost afraid. I would like to follow her remains to the grave as a mourner. I would like to convince the world, and I hope to convince you, that she was infinitely dearer to me than life. I may sustain the shock of her death, but I feel that happiness has fled from me forever.
The prayer which I make to God without ceasing is, that I yet may be able to show my veneration for the memory of my dear departed saint, by my respect and attachment for her surviving friends. May Heaven bless you, and enable you to bear the shock with the fortitude of a Christian.
I am, forever, your sincere and grateful friend,
James Buchanan
The Mystery of Ann Coleman’s Death
Finally, it might do well to explain why Buchanan was blamed for Ann Coleman’s death. The cause of her death, chalked up in history as “hysteria”, is as much a mystery of any part of Buchanan’s life.
Although nobody knew what caused her death, James was widely blamed at the time, possibly because it was his faux pax which led to the dissolution of their relationship. Or possibly because of his boozing and carousing. Or possibly because of the facts prompting the “sally forth” remark by Hannah Cochran above.
In any case, the primary source regarding Ann Coleman’s death is this short entry in the diary of a Philadelphia judge, Thomas Kittera. Writing about the events of December 8, 1819 (p. 110):
At noon yesterday I met this young lady on the street, in the vigor of health, and but a few hours after[,] her friends were mourning her death. She had been engaged to be married, and some unpleasant misunderstanding occurring, the match was broken off. This circumstance was preying on her mind.
In the afternoon she was laboring under a fit of hysterics; in the evening she was so little indisposed that her sister visited the theatre. After night she was attacked with strong hysterical convulsions, which induced the family to send for physicians, who thought this would soon go off, as it did; but her pulse gradually weakened until midnight, when she died.
Dr. Chapman, who spoke with Dr. Physick, says it is the first instance he ever knew of hysteria producing death. To affectionate parents sixty miles off what dreadful intelligence; to a younger sister whose evening was spent in mirth and folly, what a lesson of wisdom does it teach. Beloved and admired by all who knew her, in the prime of life, with all the advantages of education, beauty, and wealth, in a moment she has been cut off.
“Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?”
&&&
Only if Obama is picking a homosexual running mate. McCain does not stand a chance of winning this election, no matter who his running mate is.
See my tag line. CRIST SAID IT AND I HAVE BACKUP too.
No.
Crist’s AG Dept. denied to callers that they even had a Civil Rights Dept. THAT WAS FRAUD. I’ll get the thread so everyone’s clear about Crist offing Terri.
After Terri died, there was a Country Club affair for judges and lawyers wherein Crist gave the keynote speech. He called Judge Greer a hero (for offing Terri). Crist is very, very secular and self serving.
Crist would be a really dumb choice. McCain needs a Southern conservative, not a another mush with baggage. There’s already one of those on the ticket...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1675381/posts
Pls note this is not my thread. If you think he’s not gay, feel free to post what you know. Fregards, FV
Sounds like the media is setting McCain up. If he doesn’t choose Charlie Crist, then he’s a homophobe, and they’ll use it as just one more stick with which to beat him.
I believe that's the entire point of the piece. You notice there is no EVIDENCE of the contention that Crist is homosexual; there are, however a plethora of inferences. Seems like most of the story is about an opportunist named Jordan who claimed he was a boyfriend of Crist's. He's also a convicted felon, and sounds like he'd say anything to try to get leverage in any situation.
The rumors are getting stronger, to say the least.
Well, he IS Greek after all...
www.amazon.com keyword search: Litigation Through Spirituality.
VP ping. Charlie Crist hated Terri Schiavo so much that he failed as Fla’s AG. He’s now a lousy governor whatever his sexual preference is! He’s not very smart either but that doesn’t matter much these days. He’s good at openings and at sporting events. He’s terrible at the governing stuff.
At a country club ceremony for lawyers, Charlie Crist called Judge Greer and Judge Whittemore heroes for killing Terri Schiavo. Crist is a phony without a clue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.