My Best Friend's Wedding: Boca War Profiteer Gets Invite

^{From panty raids to war profiteering. Frat brothers grow up so fast, eh Charlie?}

What's a wedding without at least one war profiteer? That's the baggage that Harry Sargeant's been lugging around the last several months, ever since a congressional oversight committee took a close look at the deal Sargeant's Boca Raton-based Oil Trading Company International had with the Pentagon. A suit alleges Sargeant's company paid bribes to officials in Jordan in exchange for the exclusive right to ship fuel through that country to U.S. troops in Iraq, a factor that essentially made it the only bidder on the contract. The company could name its price, and according to congressional investigators, it padded the bill to the tune of about $180 million.

But that only means Sargeant can afford to get Charlie a kick-ass wedding present. Yup, Sargeant, an old frat buddy of Crist's, not to mention one of the state's leading Republican campaign contributors will be in St. Pete today to watch Crist and Carole Rome tie the knot.

Also invited, lobbyist Ron Book, of course. Perhaps one of Charlie's wise-cracking frat buddies will say to Book, "Was that a tear in your eye during the ceremony, or did another vagrant spit at you?"

-- Thomas Francis