Some Editorials on JEB's
mis-management of the state from 11/1/02
|
 | Last week, The Miami Herald reported that the Republican Party received nearly $200,000 from Anderson Columbia and its lobbyists just two days after Gov. Bush provided the swing vote on the Florida Cabinet that allowed the company to build a cement plant on the Ichetucknee River. In addition, the state used an unusual appraisal method to buy mining rights from the company that were 2,000 percent more than Anderson Columbia paid for the land. A year earlier, Gov. Bush had promised to protect the pristine North Florida river. |
| Also last week, The Post reported that Gov. Bush and his two sons traveled to the 2002 Rose Bowl aboard the jet of a developer who has business before regulatory agencies under the governor's control. Cost of the trip was $34,000. The governor paid just $1,291 for his sons -- the cost of two coach-class commercial tickets -- and the state paid $645.50 for his junket. A spokeswoman for the governor said, "We feel fortunate that there are individuals willing to volunteer their planes for official travel use at no additional cost to the Florida taxpayer." |
| The Herald also reported on how Gov. Bush's push to privatize state services has paid off for his party. The company that got a $69 million contract with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation gave $45,000 to the state GOP. The company that got a $365 million contract for law-enforcement communication gave $100,000. The company that got a $275 million contact with the Agency for Health Care Administration gave $285,000. There is no guarantee that these companies will do the work any better or, over time, any cheaper than the state would have. |
It is a trend that began six years ago, when Republicans took control of the Legislature. As newspapers in the state have reported, Republicans have threatened lobbyists with retaliation if they and their clients donate to the Democratic Party as well as the GOP. Apparently, the tactic has worked well. The Washington Post reported Thursday that since 1996, donations to the Republican Party of Florida have increased by nearly 300 percent. Democratic contributions have been flat. BellSouth, for example, gave $310,000 to Republicans and $60,000 to Democrats. This year, estimates are that Republicans will outspend Democrats in Florida by roughly 3-to-1.
Republicans would have voters believe that their fund-raising success stems from the party's advocacy for the average Floridian. In fact, the average Floridian is not the party's priority. This year, the GOP-led Legislature would have given BellSouth and others a windfall from higher monthly phone charges. The trade-off was a promised saving from supposed competition. After the public outcry, Gov. Bush vetoed the bill. Obviously, BellSouth expects to keep trying.
And now Gov. Bush's brother, Neil -- whose savings and loan bailout cost the public $1 billion -- is moving to make money off the state. His company, Ignite, makes software to prepare students for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that Gov. Bush has made into a statewide obsession. Ignite is part of a test program in Orange County.
Gov. Bush says Florida needs four more years of for-profit government. The public can't afford to play this new kind of political game.
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/opinion_d31c6b0100a8c1bd0078.html
Bush's early promise was empty promise
By Bill Berlow
ASSOCIATE EDITOR; Tallahassee
Democrat
When Jeb Bush took office nearly four years ago, I was hopeful. His
politics were to the right of mine, but his inaugural speech on Jan. 5, 1999, made me question whether my fears about him were unfounded.
He stressed themes of compassion and generosity of spirit. He urged Floridians to ask "What's best?"
He talked about faith, family and friends - not in the language of Phyllis Schlafly conservatism, but in the vernacular of values that give meaning to our lives and make our communities better. Make us better.
His tone, I wrote in a column two days later, was just right. He convinced me of his sincere desire to change both the mean- spirited tenor and excessively partisan, ideological content of political debate.
"I want to rely on the rich debate afforded by diversity, not the sterile monologue of insular politics," our new governor said.
While he said the right things, I wondered whether he'd put his words into action. I was cautiously optimistic and eager to give him the chance.
He's had his chance. Florida politics are more mean-spirited and bitterly partisan than I can remember, and I've lived here for all 47 of my years. Most people I know, including Republican friends and a Democrat who worked in his administration, are disheartened. Many folks are so confused by the disparity between what the governor says and how he says it, and what he does and how he does it, that they don't know what to believe.
He is a David Copperfield-style leader: Rather than using sleight of hand, Bush uses sleight of word.
Instead of inspiring hope, the quality common to all of the best leaders, Bush has stoked the fires of cynicism and distrust. He twists the truth, pursues policies that benefit his friends under the guise of the public interest, and stoops to mudslinging when he feels threatened.
There are other reasons, but these three are enough for me to send Jeb packing:
| His repeated use of smoke and mirrors on education. While the governor repeatedly touts a $3 billion increase in school funding, he conveniently ignores factors of growth and inflation. I'm not a big fan of the education establishment, but on this teachers and administrators agree: Money is extraordinarily tight. Florida's national education rankings are an embarrassment and they've mostly slipped under Bush's watch. There's a disconnect between the Bush version of reality and reality. |
| The Bush pals who've been helped by having a friend in office. A few examples: Bush has lobbied aggressively on behalf of Bacardi- Martini, the spirits company and GOP donor, in the firm's Washington trademark fight. Two state newspapers have reported that Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah, a VIP in the GOP, is the only Florida cardiologist to enjoy an exemption, granted by this administration, from a state tax on health care providers to fund indigent care. Most recently, New York's Village Voice reports that the wife of Republican New York Gov. George Pataki stands with her business partners to make millions on an investment of South Florida property that's infested with citrus canker but is in line for state purchase anyway, even though it failed to meet the requirements of the Florida Forever preservation program. |
| The governor's deceptive, factually wrong attack ads on Bill McBride. They want you to believe that McBride would implement a state income tax (he can't); favors more gun laws (he doesn't); and opposes the death penalty (he doesn't, but does back a moratorium so the appeals process can be reviewed). |
For the past four years, Bush has preached moderation but done little to promote the political diversity he said he sought. His closest legislative ally lately has been House Speaker Tom Feeney, who'll be remembered for his thuggishness not his statesmanship.
I'm not completely comfortable with McBride, mainly because of his vagueness on several issues and his embrace of the class-size initiative, which I suspect he privately hopes will fail. But four more years of Bush unbridled and a Republican Legislature likely will mean that the sterile monologue of insular politics will worsen, the rich debate afforded by diversity will grow even more impoverished.
"What's best?" the governor urged us to ask.
Not this.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/4414629.htm
Heavens To Silverado! Whew, There Is No Cronyism Here!
DANIEL RUTH
Published: Nov 1, 2002; Tampa
Tribune
This has to be the most curiosity- challenged clan since the last Fudd family reunion.
If you watched the warm and fuzzy familial footage during the 2000 Republican National Convention, you would be excused if you were left with the impression that all George W. and Jeb and Marvin and Neil Bush preoccupy themselves with when they get together are fond recollections over who gave the best wedgie.
It was Jeb it seems, the tallest one. Better torque.
And that apparent lack of interest in one another's adult lives seems to persist today, if Gov. Jeb Bush's public apologist is to be believed.
The Miami Herald reported this week that the family financial genius Neil Bush, who runs a Texas software company called Ignite Inc., is trying to position himself to sell a computer program designed to help Florida's public school students pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Perhaps Neil might have a computer program designed to help him understand the concept of nepotism.
Or cronyism, too. One of Ignite's board members is Mike Eason, formerly the top technology officer for the Florida Department of Education. Yeah, he probably got the job because he always brings fresh Danish to directors' meetings.
Neil Who?
Ignite is providing software for free to Ocoee Middle School in Orlando to showcase its product. But the company would like to win the state's business to sell the software to Florida public schools at $30 per student, which is hardly a mere bagatelle.
With 1.5 million students taking the FCAT last year, Ignite could be looking at a windfall of as much $45 million in business from the state.
That certainly would be a reversal of fortune for Neil Bush, who is best remembered for his involvement in the failed Silverado Savings & Loan in Colorado - a textbook case of how not to run a financial institution even if your Pop-Pop is the president of the United States.
Silverado cost the taxpayers $1 billion to bail out, which you would think might have chastened Neil Bush from further consideration to feed at the public trough.
But no.
And amazingly, when word broke of Ignite's interest in profiting from the FCAT, it seems everyone close to the governor claimed to be more ignorant of Neil Bush's presence than of the identity of participants in the witness-protection program.
A functionary at the Department of Education insisted that not a peep had been uttered around the place concerning any remote chance of doing bidness with Bush/Ignite.
And a flack for the governor took pains to promise that Jeb had never, ever - cross the governor's heart and hope to die - talked with Neil about these private-sector affairs.
Whew! For a second there, it might have seemed that Neil Bush, poster child for the Resolution Trust Corporation, might have been trying to use his bloodlines for bucks.
Really, now. A Bush brother capitalizing on the family moniker? Heavens to Harken! Say it ain't so, Silverado! I can't believe my own Ideon! Holy Nigerian water pumps!
Some Spit Take!
Even that impression would be moot if Neil Bush had the sense to realize, or to care, that peddling one's wares in a state where one's brother happens to be governor does leave the oily scent of favoritism.
It sort of stretches the bounds of credulity to buy into the notion that, in between giving his brother a few noogies, Jeb wouldn't at least mildly inquire of his brother: ``Say, Neil, how's that software thing going?''
An Ignite spokesman, who must have worked previously as an image consultant to smooth out Ozzy Osbourne's rough edges, was adamant Ignite would not have any special advantage over other software companies selling similar FCAT study materials simply because the brother of a governor and sitting president happens to own the company.
Oooooh, that was a nasty spit take of coffee across the kitchen table. You're gonna need some heavy-duty Comet to clean that up.
Does anybody honestly doubt that when Neil gets around to making his pitch for the state's FCAT business, the public will know what it feels like to get a Bush brothers wedgie?
Good grief, the Habsburgs weren't this obvious.
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGABI7HFZ7D.html
Columnist Daniel Ruth can be reached at (813) 259-7599 and also heard Saturday broadcasting live on WFLA, 970 AM, from the Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City from 9 to 11:30 a.m.