Florida newspapers have felt a bit squeamish reporting the allegations by Bruce Carlton Jordan, the former Katherine Harris travel aide regarding his own claims that he and Crist were romantically linked.
Only when a gay-pride organization held a November 4 news conference in Tallahassee urging that Crist acknowledge his alleged homosexuality did the media begin to question the candidate.
Crist is now on the hot seat.
The issue is not about "outing" Crist's sexuality. His honesty-his integrity-are the question at this eleventh hour.
If all Floridians are so cosmopolitan about homosexuality-as the press would have us believe-then what, pray tell, is the big deal?
This is the big deal.
Many Floridians believe the Norman Rockwell image of a family. Man and woman married with children. Crist himself voiced the same. ''Marriage is a relationship like my mother and father had.'' He underlined the comment for his base with this glaring comment: ''Like I had before I got divorced.''
Crist will lose the conservative base of his party if he honestly addresses the issue of his sexuality.
The same Rep wing that resents the attempted intrusion of the government into the Terri Schiavo affair.
The Republican Party wants Crist out of the hot seat and into the governor's seat for one reason.
To continue Jeb's legacy.
A legacy that is more about power than about what is best for Florida.
Supposedly, "the debate about running this story that has raged quietly in newsrooms long before today."
The same papers that held the Mark Foley story while the self-proclaimed Protector of Children instant-messaged sixteen-year-olds from the floor of Congress. Foley, as Co-Chair of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, proved instrumental in the passage of federal legislation that may very well legally ensnare the former Florida Congressman himself.
If Foley ever checks out of rehab.
Many Florida newspapers, including The Miami Herald, The Tallahassee Democrat, and The Orlando Sentinel have endorsed Charlie Crist. To question Crist's ethical integrity following such formal endorsements-how much "egg-in-the-editorial-face" would such hardball follow-up entail?
Is Crist more hypocritical than dishonest? And if dishonest now, how much can Floridians trust his decisions as governor?
Thomas Jefferson said it best.
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."
As Florida stands in the dawn of a new day, in the position to shake off the neoconservative legislative impact of the Jeb Bush administration, one certainty is clear.
The Florida press stepped aside regarding it's responsibility to everyday citizens to hold politicans accountable while at the same time, keep politicans honest and ethically solid.
Floridians have been let down by those who must always stand tall between freedom and facism.
Without a free press that is truly free, we are simply doomed as a free society.
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