Republican Family Values-Florida Style

Protecting Our Families
2004 Republican Platform

Families are the cornerstone of our culture — the building blocks of a strong society.
In families, children learn values and ideals, as well as the basic lessons that get them
started on a lifelong path of education.
We believe that every child deserves the chance to
be born and grow up in a loving family.
We also believe that while families exist in many
different forms, there are ideals to strive for.
Evidence shows us that children have the best chance at success when raised by a mother and a father who love and respect each
other as well as their children.
We also know that family breakdown makes America less
stable.
To create a sturdy foundation for the strength and success of our citizens and our
nation,
Republicans support policies that promote strong families.
We also support a
government that makes it easier for parents to raise their children in a world that offers
unprecedented opportunities and new challenges.
We offer an approach based on our
common values and our common hopes.
It will lead to a better America, one family at a time.

(Republican Platform, pg. 79)





Republican Family Values-Florida Style

otherwise entitled

The Facade appears Quite Faux

He Saw the Error of His Ways?

Surrounded by religious textbooks, statues of Catholic saints and a white and gold vestment in a glass case, Tom Gallagher softened his voice when he explained his previous abortion rights stances to about 50 members of Ocala/Marion County Right to Life last week.

Gallagher told the quiet crowd in the library of the Queen of Peace Catholic Church that he had a "history of total pro-life votes" even when he called himself "pro-choice" in previous runs for governor in the 1990s.

"I've personally made the mistake of telling the people I didn't really want to get involved in other people's decisions," he said.

In his fourth run for governor, Gallagher all but asked for their forgiveness, and their votes in the Sept. 5 Republican primary.

"I guess, maybe, I've changed a little with my wife's encouragement," Gallagher said.

Some in the crowd nodded their heads as Gallagher spoke.

"Tom Gallagher is sincere he's solidifying his solid viewpoints on pro-family, pro-life" issues, said Kevin Plunkett, an Ocala home builder.

Others shook their heads instead.

"Has he really had a conversion, or is that politics talking? I'm not sure," said Mabel Ryan, president of the Right to Life group. "I believe in repentance, but I believe in repentance for the right reasons, not a political position."

--Joe Follick, The Ledger (August 26, 2006)

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911 Animal Control

I used to live down the street from Gallagher from 1982-84 in Coconut Grove. None of the neighbors had a very high opinion of him. Not because of his divorce, but because of the way he neglected his sheepdog. Gallagher was never home. The dog was left out in the yard for hours and hours uncared for. It’s coat was filthy, matted and full of burrs. The poor thing was thirsty and hungry. It would dig out of the yard under the fence and roam the neighborhood looking for handouts. We often fed the dog. Once, during his 1982 campaign, I took one of his newspaper ads which read “Vote for Gallagher, the man who gets things done.” I tore it out of the paper, folded it up and stuck it under his dog’s collar with the message “I wonder if your dog thinks you are the ‘man who gets things done.’

Don’t think much of the man. Didn’t then, don’ now.

--Sue Sanchez, Atlanta, GA Breaking News/Tampa Tribune (6/20/2006)

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Dinner and a Show

In a copy of a September 1979 deposition of Stephanie McBee obtained by The Miami Herald, the former girlfriend of Tom Gallagher testified that during 1978 and 1979, she traveled with Gallagher to Atlanta, Texas, California, Miami, Orlando, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware and Nassau in the Bahamas. She stayed at his Miami home for three days when his wife was in Michigan, and he gave her gifts.

McBee testified that in 1979, she spent three days with Gallagher in Nassau, where they ``went to dinner, saw a show, swam, laid on the beach and read.''

McBee said she gave Gallagher gifts as well, including a handmade needlepoint belt that Ann Louise Gallagher later found and burned.

Gallagher's mother, Hope. D. Gallagher, testified that after Ann Louise filed for divorce, her son asked her to go into the couple's home and retrieve a family heirloom, a grandfather clock.

''If she burnt a belt, she might do the same thing to . . . things that are irreplaceable,'' the elder Gallagher testified.

-- MARY ELLEN KLAS, Miami Herald (June 20, 2006)

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The Question

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist had just finished a lunchtime talk to the Tiger Bay Club on Friday when someone asked The Question.

"I have heard that you were gay, sir, and I wanted to know if that was true," asked Lee DeCesare. The hotel meeting room fell silent.

I'm not," Crist replied.

Crist's divorce is on file at the Pinellas County clerk's office. It shows Crist married Amanda Morrow in Delray Beach in July 1979. Seven months later, the marriage ended. The couple had no children.

DeCesare, 72, a Democrat from Madeira Beach who writes a column for Tampa's weekly La Gaceta, a tri-lingual weekly newspaper in Tampa, said she's heard "whispers" about Crist before. She recalled his outspoken criticism in 1998 of a college play, paid for with tax dollars, that he said portrayed Jesus as gay.

--STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer (January 15, 2005)

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"What's this about Charlie's ex-wife, Amanda Morrow, being a lesbian? Does the press know that she has lived with her partner for years? Is this why Charlie's marriage failed? Is this why Mr. Crist is for Civil Union for gays? Does this mean that their marriage was a sham?"

--Bruce, Naked Politics, Miami Herald (August 24, 2006)


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While in law school, Crist married Amanda Morrow in Delray Beach. The 1979 marriage lasted a little more than six months. They divorced in January 1980. "We dated at Florida State for a couple of years, got married. I was pretty young. It just didn't work out,'' said Crist, who has never talked much about the marriage and had little to say about it.

The brevity of his marriage, and the fact that Crist has never had kids, has prompted whispers about his sexuality and questions about his ability to relate to most voters.

"I don't like to argue and we did some of that. But that's really all I have to say,'' said Crist, who has not kept in touch with his former wife.

ADAM C. SMITH and JONI JAMES, St. Petersburg Times (June 21, 2006)
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Must Have Pool

Crist has no children, lives in an apartment, lets his father handle his finances, drives a Jaguar and owns a small fishing boat. He rises every morning at 5:30 and swims laps every day. When he travels, his staff finds him hotels that have a pool. Trim and tanned, Crist said he eats one full meal a day but also nibbles during the day

--Brian E. Crowley | Sunday, August 20, 2006

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OH, That Schiavo!

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, a Republican candidate for governor, seems to have a lot to say now about the Terri Schiavo case.

Where was he last March when he should have performing the duties of his office?

Answer: Hiding because he didn't want any fallout for the case to descend upon his political future until he could be certain which way the winds and polls were blowing in the Schiavo case.

Crist maintains that he's pro-life.

But you'd never know it. Crist is flip-flopping again.

Last spring Crist said that Gov. Bush wanted to take the lead in the Schiavo case and that the Attorney General's office supported those efforts.

"I don't need to lead where he's (Gov. Bush) is already leading", Crist had said, trying to excuse why he wasn't doing his job. In 1998, in his failed attempt to be U.S. senator, Crist said he was pro-choice.

But now that he's announced that he wants to be Governor, Crist changed his tune and says he's pro-life.

Crist seems to flip-flop a lot on critical issues.

"You try to encourage a culture that respects life but understand that some decisions are up to God and family", Crist says.

Is this the person you would want to be your state's next Governor?

In one of his newsletters to the public as attorney general, Crist said that "one of the greatest features of our system of democracy is the role government can play in protecting private citizens. Florida's government has a number of safeguards built into it, many of them designed to protect consumers for exploitation".

Those safeguards weren't employed to protect Terri.

Crist didn't protect one of the state's most vulnerable adults from exploitation nor did he take any steps to protect her civil rights.

Maybe it's because Charlie Crist simply doesn't know the law and isn't capable of holding the office of attorney general and certainly not the office of governor. After all, it took him three tries to pass the Florida Bar exam and he seems to have a problem with ethics too, coming under scrutiny of the Florida Elections Commission for allegedly using his office of education commissioner to campaign for the position of attorney general.

-- 2006 North Country Gazette

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