Posted on 07/03/2008 10:33:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won't be sleeping alone in the governor's mansion much longer -- he is engaged (video: MyFoxOrlando) to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart.
Crist, 51, asked Carole Rome to marry him Thursday morning at his St. Petersburg apartment, giving her a blue sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. She immediately said yes.
"I'm very happy and couldn't be more pleased. What a great way to celebrate America's birthday," said Crist, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. "We've been talking about it for quite a while. I asked her while we were looking out over Tampa Bay and I couldn't think of a better place to do it."
Rome, 38, is the president of Franco American Novelty Co., her family's New York-area Halloween costume company, though she stopped managing its daily business when she moved to Fisher Island near Miami in 2006. Crist said they met at a dinner where he and friends were discussing fundraising.
Asked what made him fall in love, Crist said, "Her beautiful smile, her sweetness, her brilliance -- all of it."
Crist was briefly married while in college, but was divorced in less than a year. That experience contributed to the long wait between commitments.
"It made me be very selective, candidly. Those things tend to make you gun-shy a little bit, but I'm so blessed to have found such a wonderful woman," Crist said. "It sure is great to find the right one."
The couple has been seen together frequently, from a Jimmy Buffett concert in Tampa last November to sporting events and on the campaign trail with McCain. At a Republican Party of Florida dinner last month, Crist told a crowd of 700 donors that he is lucky to have Rome in his life.
The couple is discussing a fall ceremony. Crist said the wedding will likely be a more intimate gathering in St. Petersburg followed by a larger reception at the governor's mansion.
"It will be awfully nice to have her at the mansion. It's a big place to have to be alone in," he said.
Crist took office in January 2007 and previously served as attorney general, education commissioner and in the state Senate.
Rome was previously married to Blue Star Jets president Todd Rome. She has two daughters, aged 9 and 11, but Crist said he hopes the couple has a child of their own someday.
Maybe he needed a “beard” to be considered for veep.
Big, freakin’ whoop. What’s up with Guy and Madonna? How’s Britney coping?
I hoped someone would figure out what I was implying, and ...BINGO! ..the first contestant got it right! Don Pardo, tell him what we have for him...
Charlie’s gay?
As Christmas...
That has been the talk. But he’s very smart and careful. He’s a tanning salon metrosexual at the least.
Congratulations to the happy couple! ;o)
Yeah... I just looked at his picture... kinda reminds me of the Silk Pony... is Charlie a conservative?
The Talk of the Green Iguana
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2008-02-28/news/the-talk-of-the-green-iguana
McGreevey, part deux..
Gay? Oh so certainly.
He's a class act.
Well, now that it’s legal in California, I guess he decided to throw caution to the wind. :)
It depends on how you define ‘conservative’. There are a number of different definitions going around.
Charlie is a ‘conservative’ in the same way that other liberal, big government, global warmer, republocrats are.
From your link:
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.
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