July 12-13, 2008 -- Alabama GOP Attorney General caught in gay tryst
Alabama's Republican Attorney General Troy King, a major persecutor and prosecutor of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, has been kicked out of his Montgomery home after his wife, Paige King, discovered Alabama's top law enforcement official was engaged in a homosexual tryst with an assistant in the couple's own bed. King was a top official in John McCain's presidential campaign in Alabama and was mentioned as a strong GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
King was known as a virulent anti-homosexual critic having penned anti-gay letters to the Crimson White, the student newspaper of the University of Alabama. He once wrote that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance on campus was "an affront to the state of Alabama [and] its citizenry." King also called homosexuality the "downfall of society." Perhaps most controversial was his proposed legislation to ban sex toys in Alabama. Under the proposed law, anyone found with a vibrator in their possession could be jailed. It is not known whether King was using any sexual implements when he was caught by Mrs. King in bed with his male aide.
In 2004, rumors of a similar incident swirled around Texas Governor Rick Perry after his wife stormed out of the Governor's Mansion in Austin after reportedly finding the governor in bed with a man later rumored to be Secretary of State Geoffrey S. Connor. After the rumors began to whip into a small maelstrom, there were denials all around.
The King homosexual encounter, however, has a darker side outside of the category of just another salacious gay sex scandal surrounding yet another Republican official. On August 24, 2007, WMR reported on a triple homicide in which former King political consultant Ralph Gonzalez, his roommate, and another friend were found with fatal gunshot wounds in Gonzalez's Orlando, Florida home:
"Ralph Gonzalez, a top GOP political consultant and veteran campaign manager for a number of current Republican office holders, was found shot to death, along with his roommate, David Abrami, and another friend, Robert Drake, yesterday. The bodies of the three men were found in Gonzalez's Orlando home in the Hickory Cove subdivision, which also doubled as an office for his Strategum Group, Gonzalez's political consulting firm. Strategum's website also indicates it maintains offices in Atlanta and Nevada.
Police determined the three men had been dead since August 21.
Gonzalez was the former head of the Georgia Republican Party and was a close confidant of Georgia Lieutenant Governor candidate and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. Reed was also close to convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and helped broker various Indian casino deals with Abramoff."
The report continued: "Gonzalez has been involved in the campaigns of a number of scandal-plagued Republican office holders, including Florida U.S. Representative Tom Feeney, the subject of various investigations over his role in the rigging of Florida voting machines in 2000 and 2002 elections and Chinese espionage directed at U.S. missile technology through Feeney's role as General Counsel for NASA, Exxon Mobil, and State of Florida contractor Yang Enterprises while he also served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives . . .
It is also noteworthy that Gonzalez served as a political consultant for Alabama Attorney General Troy King's successful campaign. King is a close ally of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Sr. and was involved in the political prosecution of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman.
On August 13, 2007, WMR reported the following: 'federal investigators have opened a criminal investigation into the activities of [Karl] Rove in helping to formulate and carrying out the political prosecution of and criminal conspiracy against now imprisoned former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman by at least two Republican U.S. Attorneys; at least one federal judge; and top Alabama Republicans, including Governor Bob Riley, Attorney General Troy King, Deputy Attorney General Joseph Fitzpatrick, and former Attorney General Bob Pryor.'
On August 8, 2007, WMR reported, 'WMR has learned that the election fraud perpetrated by Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Karl Rove, and other leading Alabama Republicans, including at least two U.S. Attorneys in Alabama, was tied to seizing control of the state of Alabama for the introduction of gambling casinos on Indian reservations. The casino interests have been linked by Alabama investigators to the activities of jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Russian-Israeli mobsters tied to fraudulent lotteries and other gambling activities in Russia.'
Although Gonzalez's Strategum Consulting was active in providing campaign consulting services to Republican candidates in the southeastern states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as New York and New Jersey, there is only one state west of the Mississippi where Gonzalez was active - Nevada.
Gonzalez's website shows that he consulted for Nevada GOP Assembly candidates Michael Smith, Steve Grierson, Valerie Weber, and Jon Ozark and state senate candidate Barbara Cegavske."
Troy King also had links to Russian-Israeli organized crime operations in Alabama. On August 9, 2007, WMR reported: "Yesterday, WMR reported, 'the casino ties of Riley and other Republicans in Alabama is also linked to a credit card verification system compromised by the Russian-Israeli mob and used in casinos and other electronic payment systems in the United States and around the world.'
We have now learned that the credit card verification system is based on a contactless card known as 'touch and pay' used for small transactions, including lotto ticket and other vending machine, parking lot, fast food restaurant, and convenience store purchases. The cards are found in 'pre-paid' or 'post-paid' configurations. One such system created for the sale of Russian lottery tickets from vending machines failed, leaving Montgomery businessmen out tens of millions of dollars in investment money. Riley, Fuller, and other Alabama Republicans have been linked to the scam.
Alabama investors were lured into the scam because the touch and pay cards were destined to be used in Alabama casinos on tribal lands that would, in reality, be run by Abranoff's Russian-Israeli mobster friends. The entire deal had been signed off by Riley, Fuller, and other Alabama Republican operatives tied to George W. and Jeb Bush, including Karl Rove.
Although Riley and his Attorney General, Troy King, are opposed to such gambling activities as electronic bingo and small scale gaming arcades, they are quietly in bed with the promoters of large scale casinos on Indian lands tied to the Russian-Israeli mob. These would be centered on the lands of the Poarch Creek Indians and land in Fort Payne leased to the United Keetowah Band of Cherokees."
The revelations about King and his links to Gonzalez will not come as welcome news for Florida's Governor Charlie Crist, rumored to be a top vice presidential contender for McCain. Crist recently announced plans to marry Carole Rome, a socialite from New York, after rumors of Crist's homosexuality dogged his prospects to be named to the GOP Veep slot. Crist's own reported relationship with a male friend who lived in an Orlando apartment will undoubtedly re-focus attention on the GOP triple murder in Orlando.
On September 10, 2007, WMR reported: "Ralph Gonzalez, the top GOP political consultant and campaign manager for Republican candidates, who was found shot to death in his Orlando home, along with his roommate, David Abrami, and another friend, Robert Drake, ran a smear campaign website called CrazyClintCurtis.com. The website attacked the Democratic opponent of Florida GOP congressman Tom Feeney, who is under a number of investigations, chiefly one linking him to jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Although they have offered no actual proof, Orlando police suggested that there was a gay component to the shootings. We have learned that Gonzalez was likely linked to another smear website directed against imprisoned former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, TheTruthAboutDon.com. The Gonzalez-Abrami-Drake killings also have a North Carolina GOP connection. Drake worked for North Carolina's Representative Patrick McHenry, who has been linked to a large gay GOP ring based in the South."
The GOP's gay scandals, which show no signs of ebbing, threaten to put the South in play for the November presidential election. The odds are already favorable on Obama wins in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. With the scandal in Alabama involving King and reports that he may soon resign his position and favorable polls for Democrats in Mississippi, those two Deep South states could also end up in the Obama win column. In that event, November may be shaping up as a landslide victory for a Democrat unseen since Lyndon Johnson's massive win in 1964.
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