The Talk of the Green Iguana

Two years later, Jordan was fired after it was discovered he'd stolen thousands of dollars from the association for personal vacations. He was also convicted of two theft-related felonies.

After his arrest, he went to his old friend Harris and asked if she needed a hand for her U.S. Senate campaign. She quickly hired him as her personal travel aide.

Then Jordan began telling other campaign workers about having a long-term romantic relationship with Crist, who was then running for governor. Among those he told was campaign pilot Jay Vass, who has worked for numerous GOP officials, including Jeb Bush, Tom Gallagher, and Crist himself.

What Jordan didn't know was that Vass was friends with Gallagher, who at the time was running against Crist in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Vass and his girlfriend, Dee Dee Hall, gave Gallagher sworn statements about Jordan's detailed admissions. Hall even sat down for a videotaped deposition, which I obtained, in which she said that Jordan had told her that Crist was undergoing counseling because he was so conflicted about the relationship.

Since reporting the stories, I have spoken with an ex-boyfriend of Jordan's, who said he too had heard of the affair. He told me that even before the affair allegedly began, Jordan boasted of his friendship with Crist. The ex-boyfriend, who traveled in Tallahassee political circles, said Jordan and Crist may have been introduced by a mutual friend named Jennifer Faga, a wealthy socialite from the Hamptons who owned land in Florida and who lived for a time in Tallahassee.

He said that Faga and Jordan both had crushes on Crist and that Jordan apparently won out. I contacted Faga on the phone and asked if she knew Crist.

"I'm going to say 'no comment' because I don't know what you're calling about," she said.

Then I asked her if she introduced Jordan to Crist.

"No comment," she said before hanging up.

Jordan's ex-boyfriend led me to a Florida lobbyist who he said knew more about Jordan's alleged affair with Crist. I called the lobbyist, who commented on the condition of anonymity. He said that Jordan was dating Crist through much of 2006. He said that Jordan shared details with him about what they did together and where they met (at Jordan's rented carriage house in Tallahassee's Southwood development).

He said he was with Jordan on several occasions when Crist would allegedly call. Jordan would tell him "It's Charlie" and then run off to meet him.

But the lobbyist never actually saw Jordan together with Crist. He said that, while he assumed his friend was telling the truth, he couldn't be sure. Jordan, he added, boasted about a lot of things he sometimes couldn't back up, and he turned out to be a thief.

Jordan, for all his blabbing, has been publicly silent on the issue. On both occasions that I reached him, the last time being last week, he quickly hung up on me. When I called Crist about Jordan and Wetherington before the election, he denied not only that he was gay but that he even remembered meeting either man.

So what does it all add up to? Well, one thing that is certain is that Jordan and Wetherington ran in rarefied Republican circles and told numerous people, in some detail, that they'd had romantic relationships with Crist.

I find it hard to believe that both of them were lying about it, but it's possible. Could be that Calderoni was mistaken about Crist as well. Maybe his gaydar was off. Weirder things have happened.

Oh, well. Nobody cares anyway, right?