Crist gets his beard

McCain would apparently love to get popular Florida governor Charlie Crist on his ticket. The problem has been that the 51-year-old unmarried Republican is well-assumed to be gay. This isn't, "rumors" territory, but "open secret" territory.

Well, in a hint that Crist is seriously being considered for the veep-ship, he announced last week he's getting married. And this is just the latest step in his campaign to prove to the world that he's so totally butch. Just a few months ago, he had dirty trickster Roger Stone peddle a "sex tape" that featured Crist making out with his girlfriend.

The video was seemingly staged to kill the rumors that Crist is gay. Stone claims the tape -- which he discussed recently with Politics1, but didn't show to us ("I'm saving it for the national shows") -- "shows Charlie fooling around in a hotel elevator with his girlfriend ... They're making out." Adds Stone: "It was captured on a security camera in the elevator" last month. And Stone just conveniently happens to have a copy of the hotel's elevator surveillance tape, just when Crist's name is in play for the VP spot. Hmm.

Nice theater.