During last night’s Florida gubernatorial debate, there was a mini-debate over a fan.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist (D) did not get an allowance in the rules for having a fan behind his podium, but he snuck a fan onto the stage anyway. It was positioned just in front of and between his feet, angled nearly straight up.
Current Gov. Rick Scott (R) made a big deal out of the fan, and even delayed the debate to protest the fact that Crist had snuck it onto the stage.
Scott initially looked like a buffoon for making an issue of the fan, but Fox’s Chris Wallace told Brian Kilmeade today that this is not the first time that Charlie Crist’s insistence of having a fan close-by has come up.
Wallace told Kilmeade, “We’ve had Charlie Crist on Fox News Sunday, and he demanded a fan when he was [on].”
Kilmeade laughed, “He did?”
“Absolutely,” Wallace replied. “The man clearly sweats a lot, and he needs to have a fan to keep him cool.
Wallace added, “I don’t know whether he really needs it or whether he psychologically needs it, but he does need it.”
Maybe it’s not sweat. Maybe Crist has some other need to blow air past himself to points away from other peoples’ noses. And maybe Scott delayed the debate to bring whatever drives Crist to demand fans everywhere out into the open.
Is Fan-Gate somehow connected to Charlie Crist’s tangerine complexion?
I really have no idea. I just know that when Lex Luthor debates Orange Benedict Arnold and sneaking fans around is the issue, no one really wins.
Well, other than late-night comics. They’re gonna love this.
Update: Debate organizers say that Crist broke the rules with his fan sneaking. Why was he so desperate to have a fan, yet not have the rules specify that he could have one? Hm.
A source with deep knowledge of Florida politics tells me that Crist insists on having fans around him because he sweats. A lot. A whole lot. Buckets, one supposes.
Being both orange and sweaty doesn’t make for a good TV image.
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