Serious question: Is there something clinically wrong with this guy? All politicians are opportunistic and some are really opportunistic, but I feel like we’re watching a different species of animal here. It’s not the shamelessness, which is hardly unique to him; it’s the almost complete indifference to being seen as shameless. Remember the blithe wink when he reversed himself and said he’d be keeping those donations that he’d initially said he’d “probably” refund? Remember his already legendary performance on Fox News Sunday, swearing up and down that he wouldn’t leave the party to run as an independent just one month before he did? It’s one thing to lie to further your ambition, it’s another to have no compunction about doing it, and it’s something else yet to seemingly not care that people perceive you as a liar. How does a normal human intellect navigate that?

With Congress moving toward votes on repealing the policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military, Crist dropped his support for continuing the ban. As recently as Monday, Crist told reporters that the current policy, “has worked pretty well for America.”

But by Thursday, Crist said he supports the repeal.

“Ultimately, as in all military matters, I defer to the Pentagon and to the generals and what the Senate is doing today is giving them the ultimate authority to do what is best for our military,” Crist said. “So, I would be inclined to support the Senate’s action on this.”…

Crist’s leading Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who has fought to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy for years, ripped the governor as “willing to say or do anything to get elected.”…

Meek said Crist’s wavering positions on offshore oil-drilling — which he was against, then supported, and now opposes again — and a legislative bill repealing teacher tenure that he earlier supported but ultimately vetoed, marks him as untrustworthy to voters.

Rubio’s camp ripped him too, of course. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but according to a third-party candidate’s internal poll, Crist currently leads with 40 percent of the vote. Rubio’s next with 32 and Meek’s slogging along with just 10 percent. We’re near the point, I think, where this guy winning the race would singlehandedly detonate the tea-party “reform” narrative that’s brewing in November. Even if Rand Paul and Sharron Angle and Allen West and a bunch of others sweep to victory, how do you take that as evidence that voters want a new breed of politician when the most disgraceful careerist in the political universe will have knocked off Rubio in a key swing state? I’m throwing down the gauntlet: A Crist win means total grassroots defeat.