Florida AG Hired George "Rentboy" Rekers Despite Staffer Warnings

As if the George "Rentboy Lover" Rekers scandal wasn't salacious enough, the scandal continues to wrap its tentacles around Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum who is running for Governor. As the Miami Herald is reporting, McCollum hired Rekers as an expert witness even though staffers told him the Rekers was a crackpot. Plus, McCollom paid Rekers twice as much as what his contract specified. Was McCollum trying to kiss up to the Christianists or was something more going on. As the saga continues to unfold, Rekers' rentboy comes across as far more honorable and with more integrity than Mr. McCollum. Indeed, the herald's secondary headline reads "State documents show attorney general Bill McCollum hired an anti-gay witness and paid the expert witness double his contract with no questions asked." Obviously, plenty of questions are now being asked of McCollum. Here are some highlights from the Herald story:
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TALLAHASSEE -- Disgraced psychologist George Rekers was labeled a ``right-wing, religious-based'' expert witness and rejected for months by state attorneys defending Florida's gay adoption ban.
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But when they couldn't find anyone else to replace him on the witness stand, Attorney General Bill McCollum overruled his trial attorneys, quickly hired Rekers, and paid him twice his agreed upon contract with no questions asked, according to documents released this week by McCollum's office.
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[R]ecords obtained by The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times, show that despite repeated objections from the Department of Children and Families, the attorney general agreed to advance Rekers $60,900 to get him to take the case and another $59,700 a year later as the case dragged on.
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The payments included $9,000 for 30 hours of searching journal articles and books, $27,000 to ``read the relevant publications since Sept. 2004 and evaluate and critique the methodological quality.'' A year later, he charged for nearly 30 hours for reading the same materials again.
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Hannah said Rekers asked for the money up front so that his fees would not be contested, as had happened in previous cases in which he testified. But the attorney general had to find a creative way to get the money to him. ``Our finance folks said the only way to do that is through a purchase order,'' Hannah said. The hiring of Rekers and other expert witnesses became a top priority of the attorney general's office shortly after they took over the case.