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"Carpet-bag" is an American original dating back to the early part of the 19th century, when migrants traveled around the country with all their possessions in a bag made of carpet.
Carpetbagger is Reconstruction slang, a Southern sling-shot at Northerners who went South with their carpet-bag on one shoulder and a chip of political ambition on the other.
from Nativists and the C chromosome
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News Clips
updated
04/15/04
Check the new
WhoseFlorida for updates (news
clips have not been kept updated - check
archives) Not everyone who comes to
Florida wants only to take from it or remake it in their own image -
some simply find their place, find themselves, and settle in
-- "...We were bred of
earth before we were born of our mothers. Once born, we can
live without mother or father, or any other kin, or any friend, or
any human love. We cannot live without the earth or apart from it,
and something is shriveled in a man's heart when he turns away
from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men..."
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek
But
JEB is no MKR, his heart is shriveled and his concerns only with
the affairs of men.
What else could allow him to canoe down the beautiful Ichetucknee
one day, and OK a permit for a cement plant on that very spot the
next day? For sure, not all
transplants to Florida are carpetbaggers, but JEBush
came to Florida to make his fortune |
JEBush came to Florida to make his fortune
Make
the Money and Run : an in depth look at JEB's history in Florida up to
the 1998 election: http://www.sptimes.com/State/92098/Make_The_Money_and_Ru.html
Some highlights:
 | The son of former
President George Bush has followed the family's patrician play book:
Hurry up and get rich, then go into public service.
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| Trading on the famous family name, Bush gained entry
to exclusive business ventures courtesy of wealthy Republicans.
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| But Bush's hurried quest for financial success also
reveals a naive reliance on his benefactors and a lack of scrutiny of
those around him. He tapped his father's Washington connections to
recruit help for some questionable businessmen, including one felon
who remains a fugitive wanted by the FBI. He embraced business deals
that have prompted lawsuits alleging mismanagement, stock manipulation
and special treatment.
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| One Miami real estate deal is typical of the
privileged pattern of Bush's wealth-building: invest little but reap
lots. In 1984, Bush put just $1,000 in an office building called
Museum Tower. By 1990, he sold out for about $346,000. Similar deals
followed. Who made it possible? Armando Codina.
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| While Bush's financial network is global, it is built
largely around four powerful men: Armando Codina, Thomas Petway III,
David Eller, Richard Lawless - (please see the article for details)
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| And when Bush and Codina needed to unload Deering
Bay, an upscale golf community that had lost millions, they found a
buyer in Florida developer Al Hoffman. (he was the primary finance
chairman of the Bush campaign in '98 and chair of the Council of
100- architects of "Service First").
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| (in 1998 Codina) sold one-third of his company to
Weeks Corp., an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust, and
another third to Jacksonville's St. Joe Co., Florida's largest private
landowner.
That sale prompted environmentalists to question if Bush can be
objective about land-use issues, if he defeats Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay
this November. (See Great Northwest)
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| Codina and Bush dismiss such concerns. Bush
officially resigned June 30 and is no longer an owner of any of the
Codina properties. Yet Bush still (1998) refers to it as "our
company," even as he's trying to downplay his connection.
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| Much more in the Sept. 1998 St
Pete Times article....
....galloway, 8/16/02
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We're all carpetbaggers ??
Nativists and the C chromosome
It would be offensive to most voters to hear a political candidate claim that he's a better choice than his opponent for being lighter skinned, more Christian, more manly, better- spoken, better-wed or better-bred. Those rotten standards of political quality were quite real once. They'd be "inappropriate" today, to use the word- whip of behavioral correctness. But it's still OK to call someone a carpetbagger.
... It's a common betrayal. But if the word won't die, we might as well own up to the C chromosome in America's genealogy: We're all carpetbaggers, and should be proud of it.
Did cement deal pour money into GOP?
- Paving firm gave $190,000 to Republican Party accounts after N. Florida deal was sealed--
TALLAHASSEE - A year after Gov. Jeb Bush canoed down Florida's beloved Ichetucknee River and vowed to protect it, he shocked environmentalists by allowing construction of a cement plant nearby that they claim could pollute surrounding air.-
Now, a Herald analysis reveals new information about the controversial episode: Executives and lawyers representing Anderson Columbia Inc., the big paving firm that sought approval for the plant, poured nearly $190,000 into state and national Republican Party accounts over the two days after a key part of the deal was concluded.-
At the same time, a Herald review of public records shows that one critical component of the deal -- the $23 million price the state paid to buy a lime rock mine from Anderson Columbia -- was based on an unusual appraisal process.
... 10/26/02
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info: email info@whoseflorida.com
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