Who calls me this morning, but my old friend Jason Wetherington. He's the former GOP staffer and Broward School Board student liaison who boasted around town about having an affair with Charlie Crist. He wasn't thrilled that I reported it and, after my article (along with the sequel ) was published, he disappeared for several days in Georgia until the election was over. While he was on the lam, I talked to him briefly and he told me, rather cryptically, that he was being taken care of very well.
Months pass. The phone rings this morning. What follows is a reconstructed, paraphrased version of the conversation that is as true as I can make it:
Me: Hello? JW: This is Jason Wetherington. Me: Hello Jason, how are you doing? JW: Somebody has gotten onto my match.com account and is spreading it around to my church. This involves very important people. And if you did it I want you to know that I've contacted authorities. Me: You really think I would
do something like that? I write about people, Jason, I don't sabotage them. I have no idea what you're talking about. JW: I wouldn't put anything past you. You use unnamed sources who won't come forward. Me: Yeah, so did Woodward and Bernstein. Listen, you and I both know you were boasting around town about having sex with Crist. The question is whether you were telling the truth. JW: They're going to find out who did it. Me: Well, good. It wasn't me. JW: Then you're safe. Because the authorities are looking into this right now. Me: I hope they find whoever did it. What have you been up to, Jason?
It was about that time that the conversation tailed off and Jason got off the phone. I didn't even know what match.com was before the phone call, but I am a reporter, so when we got off the phone I looked it up. Once there, it was very easy to find Wetherington's page and the registration was easy as pie. There's nothing scandalous on the page, though my favorite part is that one of his turn-ons is "power." (Yeah, I heard that about him.) I'm also curious about what "foundation" in South Florida now employes Wetherington. The info is there for all the world to see, so I imagine someone either hacked into his personal account, with e-mails and IMs and such, or went undercover to get a dialogue going with him. Interesting.
