From us, from everyone who called him a lightweight and suggested he was all form and no substance.
As attorney general, Crist seems to be coming into his own.
I always hate to say good things about a politician, because just as surely as I do they'll do something really stupid.
But here goes.
This week Crist appointed former Public Counsel Jack Shreve as his top consumer advocate to take on the state's telecommunications companies. If nothing else proves Crist is serious, this should do it.
This after Crist's successful pursuit of a new civil rights law that was uniformly opposed by the state's business community and his strong support for public records and open meetings.
Last year, when Crist ran for the job as the state's top lawyer, a lot of people questioned whether he could handle the job and accused him of job-hopping his way up the political food chain.
As a state senator from St. Petersburg, Crist gained a reputation as "Chain Gang Charlie" for taking a hard line against the state's prison inmates. He relished the nickname and even used it in his campaign advertising. (The name was a gift from St. Petersburg Times editorial writers, who did not mean it as a compliment.)
Since 1992, when Crist was first elected to public office, a lot of people who watched him in action labeled him a phony because he is always unfailingly nice to everyone. (Former House Speaker Peter Wallace says it is a reflection of his upbringing by equally nice parents)
Crist doesn't get angry, he doesn't use profanity in public and he is always incredibly courteous, even when someone is insulting him. As chairman of a committee that took on former Gov. Lawton Chiles, he persisted in looking at misleading telephone calls made to voters on the eve of the 1994 election until Chiles confessed his own campaign did it.
Then Crist had the nerve to summon Chiles and his crew before a Senate committee to explain. It was a rare moment in Florida politics. Through it all, Crist was as cool as a cucumber, never raising his voice, never responding to insults.
His opponents called him awful names and said he could not handle the job of attorney general. Most newspapers didn't endorse him.
Democrats who worked inside the attorney general's office feared Crist, a Republican, and swore they would leave if Crist were elected.
When the dust cleared, many of the Democrats remained on the job, not because they had no choice but because Crist asked them to stay.
Some of his Republican friends weren't happy. They wanted a clean sweep and the hiring of lots of Republicans.
Recently, one of the longtime employees of the office, a Democrat who had worked for a prior attorney general, made an odd comment.
Whenever they get ready to do something, Charlie asks, "Is this the right thing to do?" the employee told me.
No one else had asked that question in the past. But it is such an obvious question it makes you wonder why it's not asked every day in every office.
So many times an elected official's decision comes not because it is right but because it is the politically savvy thing to do. Or the thing that pleases a particular interest group.
Not many of the state's big businesses will like seeing Shreve back, but there is nobody else in Tallahassee who knows as much about consumer law. Shreve is a Democrat. He says Crist never asked about his party affiliation. He didn't care.
