(WMR) WMR's
intrepid sources in Florida report on some details about GOP gubernatorial
candidate and current Attorney General Charlie Crist, or should we say Charlie
Christodoulos.
Crist's father, Charlie, Sr., legally shortened the family's
name in 1949, according to court records in Pinellas County, Florida. The elder
Crist's father emigrated from Cyprus to the United States in 1912. We have also
discovered a bit more about Crist's personal details, much of which have been
obscured because of Crist's status as a "law enforcement officer."
Under post-Patriot Act laws, personal details on law enforcement officers are
blocked by special statutes.
WMR received the following article Friday from George
Maurer, a Key West Florida radio talk show host. This article contains
information that every Florida voter should know before casting their ballot
before or on November 7.
"At the outset of this message, let me first get
something off my chest. I�m a gay man who, never since I realized same more
than 30 years ago, has ever denied same, and who served 30 years in the
Army/Army Reserve. About Florida congressperson Mark Foley, I�ve found these
past few days particularly troubling, especially so as I�m a progressive
Democrat and very troubled about the HYPOCRISY of many of our Republican
opposition.
Starting at the top, we have AWOL George W. Bush who
constantly gives TV speeches in front of and with a picture background of
military audiences. AWOL George�s only military background was a 6-year
obligation with the Texas Air National Guard which he used to get a deferment
from going to Vietnam, and from which obligation he was Absent Without Leave
(AWOL) for the last couple of years of his tour. This same hypocrite has taken
us to mammoth, unjustified, unpaid, prolonged war, killing hundreds of
thousands of people. In the last couple of days, he and his hypocritical
colleagues have enacted a military detainee bill which broadly defines �enemy
combatants� and makes any US citizen or resident subject to same, without right
of habeas corpus review, review only by an �enemy combatant review tribunal.� They
have voted to pay for and construct a 300-mile fence between the US-Mexico
3,000 mile border.
Now we have Mark Foley. As an adult, I�ve never fooled
around with underage males, let alone those over whom I�ve had some degree of
power.
Now, even the most staunch of Republicans must know about
Florida congressperson Mark Foley. But what about Charlie Crist (Jr?),
Florida�s Republican candidate for Governor?
The following appears in the online material of the Insurance
Journal, as a 9/16/06 posting of Beverly S. Hill of Tallahassee, Florida:
Charles Crist is an �In The Closet Homosexual.�
The fact that he is GAY means nothing.
The fact that he is IN THE CLOSET and represents a party
that hates GAYS means everything. This kind of hypocrisy is grotesque and
cannot be tolerated. I hope we can all help Charlie �COME OUT� before the
election.'
Let�s take a look at Crist�s biography. This perpetually tan
(at least from the neck up), handsome, 50-year old bachelor was born on June
24, 1956 in Altoona, PA.. Half Greek origin, half Scots-Irish, his Greek dad,
Charles Crist, Sr., M.D., changed the family name in 1949, from Christodoulos,
dropping the 'h' and the 'doulos.'
The second oldest of four children and the only son, the
family moved to Atlanta when young Charlie was 6 weeks old, and where his dad
went to medical school. In 1960, then Dr. Crist got a job at Bayfront Medical
Center and the family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1966, Dr. Crist won
election to the Pinellas County School Board.
From 1970-74, presumably, Charlie attended St. Petersburg
High School where his dad was football team doctor, and where Crist was said to
have played quarterback until 'his playing career was cut short by a knee
injury his senior year.'
At the Crist home on Snell Isle, Charlie was said to play
catch with the boy next door, Felix Fudge, who 'was four years younger.'
Apparently, in the fall of 1974, Charlie decided to go to
Wake Forest University in North Carolina, because, despite his high school knee
injury, he, according to an 8/27/06 St. Petersburg Times� news article, 'hoped
to extend his football career at a small university. . . . *** (B)ut he was a
walk-on, a bench warmer who played in junior varsity games but never took a
snap in a varsity contest.' Of course, Crist�s official state bio merely says
he �attended Wake Forest University, where he played quarterback. . . ."
Now unlike AWOL George W. Bush, there�s not a word anywhere
that I�ve seen about Charlie�s draft status in 1975 as the war was ending in
Vietnam, and the draft as well, and no indication that he served a single day
in the military. 'After his sophomore year at Wake Forest, a homesick Crist
gave up on football and *** decided to transfer to Florida State University,'
presumably in the fall of 1976. After graduating from FSU in June, 1978 (?),
Crist apparently, in the fall of 1978, entered Cumberland School of Law in
Birmingham, Alabama.
In the summer of 1979, Crist, while attending law school in
Alabama, entered his one and only brief marriage to a woman, Amanda Morrow.
During the 1979 holiday season, Crist�s sister Catherine Kennedy said his 'head
was down and his shoulders were slumped.' Crist was the one who filed for
divorce only some six months after the marriage and it was dissolved on
2/15/80. 'Like Crist, Morrow did not marry again.' In the Miami
Herald 8/24/06 commentary 'Naked Politics�, 'Bruce' posted 'What�s this
about Charlie�s ex-wife, Amanda Morrow, being a lesbian? Does the press know
that she has lived with her partner for years? Is this why Charlie�s marriage
failed? Is this why Mr. Crist is for Civil Union for gays? Does this mean that
their marriage was a sham?' Presumably, Crist graduated from the Alabama law
school in June 1981.
Crist�s reported chronology from 1981 until his 1992
election to the state senate is inexact at best. As far as I can glean it, he
twice failed the bar exam before passing it on the third try.
While struggling with the bar exam, he apparently 'interned'
with the State Attorney�s Office (in Pinellas?). (It helps to have a Republican
medical doctor daddy.) Presumably in 1982, he got a five-year job as �general
counsel' for the St. Petersburg-based National Association of Professional
Baseball Players, the 'controlling body' for minor-league baseball in the US,
Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Given time off for various months at end during the 5 years,
he unsuccessfully ran for the state senate in 1986. Then, supposedly in 1987,
he joined his brother-in-law�s, J. Emery Wood�s, one-man law firm.
In 1988, Connie Mack won US Senate election, and Crist
worked for a year as Mack�s state director. He returned, for a couple of years
apparently, to his brother-in-law�s law practice, and Charlie was then elected
himself to the state senate in 1992 where he served for four years until 1996.
In 1997, who knows what he did? In 1998, Crist ran unsuccessfully for US Senate
against Bob Graham. In 1999, Jeb Bush appointed him Deputy Director for the
Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation and he then won
election as Florida Education Commissioner where he served from January 2001 to
January 2003. From January 2003 to date, Crist won election and has served as
Florida�s Attorney General.
One might sarcastically suggest that a person with an
undistinguished academic career, an almost non-existent private sector career,
who�s tan, handsome and articulate and has a fairly rich Republican daddy,
certainly deserves to be on the public dole as Florida�s Education Commissioner
and Attorney General. Now, of course, Crist is the Republican nominee to be
Florida Governor.
One should note that, while Education Commissioner in 2001,
Crist was reported as condemning a play with a gay theme that 'offended
Christians' (see May
2001 newsletter, TransFamily.).
For the past year, as Crist�s quest to be governor
developed, Charlie has supposedly been 'dating' Kathryn 'Katie' Pemble,
executive vice-president of the Bank of St. Petersburg. Pemble is 41 years of
age, divorced, and has a 7-year old daughter. As to possible marriage with
Pemble, Crist says 'I haven�t thought about it.' In mid-September, 2006,
'millionaire Reform Party gubernatorial candidate Max Linn ' . . . 'insist(ed)
that Charlie Crist is gay� . . . 'on Orlando radio station WFLA-AM 540' . . . to
talk show 'host Bud Hedlinger. . . . ' Linn said 'he would �put my hand on a
stack of Bibles� to say Crist is gay.' His sexual preference is not to women. .
. . �(See Gadfly
in governor's race may have a sharp stinger.)
As to Crist�s being gay, 'Linn claimed to know this because
he and Crist were in the same 1985 class of Leadership St. Petersburg Chamber
of Commerce program. �We discussed it,� Linn said. Linn . . . said if Crist
were to win, he would be subject to extortion and blackmail. In the next
breath, Linn said he would avoid mudslinging but that Crist�s personal life is
a special case because it�s about integrity.�
WMR has also learned that Crist's fraternity brother at
Florida State was Brent Sembler, son of major Bush and Crist financial backer
Mel Sembler. Sembler, who served as George W. Bush's ambassador to Italy and
Daddy Bush's ambassador to Australia, was the brains behind the founding of
SEED, Straight, Inc. and the Drug Free American Foundation (DFAF). Straight and
SEED have been accused of abusing teens undergoing drug rehabilitation,
including subjecting teens to brainwashing techniques. And what doctor served
on the advisory board of SEED and approved of such techniques that subjected
underage teens to brainwashing? None other than Dr. Charlie Crist, Sr., the
father of the man who seeks to replace Jeb Bush and Governor of Florida. And
why has Bernie McCabe, the State Attorney for Pinellas County, never brought
charges against SEED, Straight, and DFAF for child abuse? It might have
something to do with the fact that McCabe is a campaign contributor to Charlie
Crist.
It is clear that Crist's candidacy is an attempt to continue
the Bush "banana republic" regime in Florida. And that spells big
trouble for Democrats in the 2008 presidential election. After all, we should
all remember what Jeb Bush and his hand-picked Secretary of State Katherine
Harris pulled off in 2000.
� 2006
WayneMadsenReport.com. All Rights Reserved.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based
investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is author of the forthcoming book, �Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates.� He is the editor and
publisher of the Wayne Madsen
Report.