FL AG Bill McCollum Recommended George Rekers For Gay Adoption Trial

Today the Florida Tribune revealed that Attorney General Bill McCollum actually wrote a letter to the Department of Children and Families in which he "strongly" urged the hiring of Dr. George Rekers for the state's battle to maintain their ban on gay adoption.

McCollum wrote a July 2007 letter to then DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth where he said his legal team “strongly” recommended the hiring of Rekers, a psychologist once on the faculty of the University of South Carolina and who helped found the Family Research Council back in the ‘80s. “They believe that this expert and his testimony are necessary to ensure a successful result in this case,’’ wrote McCollum in the letter obtained by the Florida Tribune. McCollum in his letter noted that initially DCF refused to hire Rekers, due primarily to the potential cost of his fees. Instead the child welfare agency wanted to only hire Walter Schumm, a professor of family studies at Kansas State University. “Dr. Schumm is a good expert, but his areas of expertise are different from Dr. Rekers,’’ wrote McCollum. “Our attorneys handling this case have searched long and hard for other expert witnesses with comparable expertise to Dr. Rekers and have been unable to identify any who would be available for this case.”

DCF replied to McCollum that they gave "great weight to the analysis and recommendation of your staff." They said they'd follow McCollum's advice as long as Rekers' fee did not exceed $60,000. The state actually paid Rekers TWICE that amount.

McCollum's connection to Rekers is really blowing up in the Florida press and you folks can take credit for a large part of that. Please continue to hit McCollum's Facebook campaign page if you haven't been banned yet.

UPDATE: If you are banned from McCollum's page, try the page for the Florida Republican Party. There's also this anti-McCollum Facebook group.