But Does Charlie Like Fish Sticks?

In picking the week's best quotes for its "Verbatim" page, Time magazine prizes drama (a quote from the co-pilot killed in the plane crash near Buffalo), candor (Jesse Ventura saying what he'd do with a waterboard and Dick Cheney), and gaffes, especially the kind that reveal more truth than they intended.

And one can't help but wonder about one curious selection for enshrinement in this week's Verbatim, on the U.S. Senate bid of Charlie Crist:

"He is the big fish that national Republicans have been looking for."

So said Stuart Rothenberg, a commentator who edits an eponymous blog. Such a bland quote, it's almost cryptic. My theory is that it was picked for its gaffe / Freudian slip quality based on two recent pop culture phenomona: 1) This month's release of the documentary Outrage, where Crist is a suspicious figure among a cast of outed gay Republicans; and 2) The instant classic South Park episode that teases alleged closet case Kanye West for being the one person who doesn't get the Fish Sticks joke.

Governor, do you like fish sticks? Do you like to put them in your mouth? If so, you may be a gay fish -- just the kind the Republicans need. And you can hope for a happy ending just like Kanye's.