Chip Litherland for The New York Times 
 
 TAMPA, Fla. — Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor of Florida who ran for the Senate as an independent, will speak at the Democratic National Convention next week, taking yet another step away from his erstwhile party. 
 
 Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, confirmed Mr. Cristâ€™s role just a day after he endorsed the president for re-election. The chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Lenny Curry, derided that endorsement as Mr. Cristâ€™s effort to â€œshed his skin for a political comeback.â€? 
 
 Mr. Crist, who hails from nearby St. Petersburg, was once seen as a rising Republican star whose endorsement was sought by several of the party’s presidential candidates in 2008. But he fell out of favor in 2009 when he embraced President Obamaâ€™s economic stimulus efforts, and he ran for the Senate as an independent in 2010 after it appeared he would lose the Republican primary to Marco Rubio, the Tea Party-backed candidate. Mr. Rubio, now the junior senator from Florida, is scheduled to introduce Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention here on Thursday. 
 
 Convention speakers from the opposite party are common trophies, and have been sought more aggressively in recent years as the parties try to highlight their broad appeal. 
 
 Mr. Crist was viewed as a contender to be Senator John McCainâ€™s running mate in 2008, but he is still not the most high-profile poaching in modern convention history. That title belongs to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who ran as Al Goreâ€™s running mate in 2000. After losing the Democratic primary in Connecticut in 2006, Mr. Lieberman then succeeded where Mr. Crist failed by winning his Senate race as an independent. 
 
 Mr. Lieberman’s further split with Democrats over foreign policy led him to address the Republican convention in 2008. ||||| If former Gov. Charlie Crist's endorsement of Barack Obama did anything, it fired the first official salvo in the ever-present fight for the independent voter in Florida between Mitt Romney and the president in 2012. 
 
 (Independent voters traditionally determine elections in the nation's largest swing state and, as Florida Republican Party chairman Lenny Curry confirmed on Monday, “Mitt Romney cannot win the presidency without Florida.") 
 
 But the chatter among Republicans at the RNC today is that Crist's endorsement is a sign of a more interesting fight to come -- from their vantage point -- in 2014. 
 
 That would be the fight between the potential candidacy of Alex Sink, the Democrat and former CFO who lost to Republican Rick Scott in 2010 by a narrow 62,000 votes, and Charlie Crist for the Democratic nomination in 2014. Or between Crist and whichever other Democratic alternative may be named. (Among them: Fort Lauerdale Mayor Jack Seiler, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former state Sen. Rod Smith and state Sen. Nan Rich.) 
 
 The mere suggestion that Crist would switch from no-party affiliation to the Democratic Party already is stirring up trouble in Democratic circles. "Some party leaders who are encouraging him and others who are very much against it,'' one party insider told us. 
 
 Former state Sen. Dan Gelber believes Crist may help Obama with Republicans and independent voters who believe "the GOP has become simply too extreme." But he's not ready to embrace the idea of Crist as a candidate. 
 
 "I think party insiders are over thinking the prospect of Crist embracing Democrats and vice versa,'' Gelber said. "The Republican reaction was obviously an over reaction as they acted like Crist had committed a savage crime with his endorsement. It's a long way to 2014, but Scott should be worried because lots of right-thinking Republicans and Independents feel totally at sea with his party and policies. Crist's endorsement is simply another proof point of that sentiment."
– Looks like Charlie Crist has become the Joe Lieberman of this election cycle. The former Republican governor of Florida, who turned independent for a failed 2010 Senate bid, will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention next week, reports USA Today. Crist, who declared his support for President Obama over the weekend, was seen as a potential running mate for John McCain in 2008, but fell out of favor with the GOP after backing Obama's economic stimulus plan in 2009, the New York Times notes. Crist has been denounced as a turncoat by Republicans, who have a turncoat of their own at their convention. Artur Davis, co-chair of Obama's first campaign, now supports Mitt Romney and will be one of the RNC's featured speakers tonight. Crist's conversion has sparked rumors that he may run as a Democrat against Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2014, although some people in both parties scorn the idea, reports the Miami Herald. "How’s a guy who is pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay marriage, anti-civil unions and is to the right of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on abortion—how is he going to run as a Democrat?" wondered the chief of the Florida Republican Party.