More on the Story That a Crist Male Ex-Lover Spilled the Beans

A Palm Beach independent weekly has more on the story that a former Katherine Harris staffer was heard by multiple sources to say he is one of the ex-lovers of Florida Republican governor’s candidate Charlie Crist.

The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.

‘”He was like [Katherine] Harris’s gay valet,” the source said.

Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff’s reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist’s long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who also recently worked for Harris in her long-shot Senate bid…

Jordan was charged in 2003 with stealing thousands of dollars from two organizations for whom he worked, including the Tallahassee-based Florida Funeral Directors Association, where he served as executive director. He completed a 60-day jail sentence in February and will be on probation until the year 2011, according to state records.

Sometimes, the very way someone denies something makes it hard to believe they could be telling the truth. This is one of those cases. Not only is Crist denying he and Jordan are long-time lovers, he says he can’t place the name or face.

When the [Miami] Herald questioned Crist about Jordan this past August, the frontrunner in the governor’s race told the newspaper that he doesn’t remember the man. “I don’t know who Bruce Jordan is,” he said at the time. “It doesn’t mean I haven’t met him. I don’t know who you are speaking about.”

I asked Crist during a phone interview on Monday morning if he had ever had sex with Jordan.

“No,” he said. “I don’t recall the name.”

That Crist doesn’t remember Jordan seemed incredible to me. Not only did the attorney general make a special appearance at the funeral directors’ conference, but former presidents of the association say Jordan was known to be pals with Crist.

Wetherington, a former Florida Senate page himself, publicly denies an affair with Crist. Privately it’s a different matter.

Wetherington spoke at the party about working for Katherine Harris’s campaign. To me, this was significant since Harris is a stalwart of the Religious Right and openly denounces homosexuality. Wetherington even took a call from Harris after they sat down for cocktails before dinner. “He was like Harris’s gay valet,” the source said.

As they sipped their drinks, Jason started talking about his relationship with Crist, which he said had been sexual in nature.

“Charlie Crist? Are you kidding?” the source remembers asking.

They asked Jason about the size of Crist’s anatomy. Jason “wouldn’t go there,” said the source. “He said that he remains friendly with Crist and that he was expecting an appointment when Crist becomes governor.”

The story explains that Wetherington is long on ambition but, like any other gay Republican, in the wrong party.

The [Southwest Florida Sun-Sentinel] article also mentioned his role as a leader at First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale. The huge 12,000-member church is one of the more anti-gay institutions in the county and has been aligned with the ultra-conservative Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and its rabidly right-wing minister, D. James Kennedy.

Wetherington appeared to be living a seriously twisted double life. On the one hand, he was a young Christian Republican leader and on the other a cruiser of men in AOL chat rooms.

Crist terms the stories a result of, “silly season.”

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