Maybe his wife's just pissed because Charlie Crist did not appoint her to the U.S. Senate, like he did his good buddy George LeMieux. Whatever the case, it's becoming clear that the honeymoon period is over for Florida's First Couple, who appear to be drifting apart as they approach their first anniversary.
They don't admit it, of course. The pair wants smooth sailing to the U.S. Senate next fall. But anyone who's ever stood in a grocery checkout line can recognize the symptoms of a celebrity couple on the rocks. They're sprinkled throughout this article in this weekend's St. Petersburg Times.
Former first ladies Columba Bush and Rhea Chiles championed the arts or the well-being of children, but Mrs. Crist has yet to embrace a popular cause to improve life in Florida. "This is all so new for me -- the political, public life," Mrs. Crist said Saturday, holding hands with her husband in the lobby of a Gainesville hotel.Carole Rome -- she's kept her ex-husband's name -- has not held an event at the Governor's mansion since April's Easter egg hunt, the article notes. And later, when the former Hamptons socialite was pressed about whether she'd use her status to help a favored political or charitable cause, she said:
"I hope to, yes. I do the best I can. I try."So politics, the passion that rules her husband, is apparently not a natural interest of Rome's, and in the nine months of marriage to the governor, she's not developed an interest. It's apparent the two spend lots of time apart -- with Crist dividing his time between Tallahassee and the campaign trail and Rome holed up in her Fisher Island condo.
Absurdly, the article doesn't even mention the persistent rumors that our governor, a nearly lifelong bachelor, is g-a-y.