Jeb Bush Leads Re-election Team for Presidential Effort in Florida

[Khephra]

Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida will serve as chairman of his brother's re-election campaign in the state, whose votes could prove crucial in the presidential election next fall.

The Bush campaign announced the appointment on Wednesday, along with that of Brett Doster, a 32-year-old lobbyist and former aide to Jeb Bush, as the president's Florida campaign manager.

The campaign also released the names of 59 campaign leaders who will help raise money and get out the vote for President Bush here. They include Armando Codina, a Miami real estate developer and former business partner of Jeb Bush, and John Thrasher, a lobbyist and former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

After the 2000 election, in which President Bush defeated Al Gore in Florida by just 537 votes after a protracted recount, Republicans and Democrats alike are viewing the state as pivotal in 2004. It is the fourth most populous state after California, Texas and New York. Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, has called Florida "ground zero" in the re-election effort.

more...............

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/national/02TEAM.html

[Cush]

1. how transparent can they be?

[Wapsie B]

2. Surely there's a way

to neutralize Jethro. There's got to be enough dirt on him to fill volumes.

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Just neutralize him

Send him to an insane asylum after supergluing a beard on his face.

Tell these folks that Jeb Bush sent him and this guy's a liberal, and needs the VIP treatment.

Hawkeye-X

[janx]

4. That won't even be necessary if we concentrate on other

states. Florida is one state out of 50.

[AndyTiedye]

5. No Chance of an Honest Vote in Florida

Brother Jeb will see to that. The fix is still in.

The Repubs won't have to spend any money on Florida to "win" it,
the Dems shouldn't waste any of our scarce dollars there.

[denverbill]

11. Screw Floriduh. We don't need it.

Arizona polls have Bush with really high disapproval. We only need one state to switch.

[booksenkatz]

6. Man, they're not even trying

to pretend to be neutral this time, are they? A family with a grain of honor would go out of its way to ensure a clean, fair ...

... oh, skip it.

[Judi Lynn]

7. It's so great learning Jeb will be using Armando Codina

his former "business" partner:

(snip) Jeb and Armando Codina
Shortly after arriving in Miami, Jeb was hired by Cuban-American developer Armando Codina to work at his Miami development company as an agent leasing office space. A couple of years later, Jeb and Codina became business partners, and in 1985 they purchased an office building in a deal partly financed by a savings and loan that later failed.

The $4.56 million loan, from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida, was granted in such a way that neither Codina's nor Bush's name appeared on the loan papers as the borrowers. A third man, J. Edward Houston, borrowed the $4.56 million from Broward and then re-lent it to the Bush partnership. When federal regulators closed Broward Savings in 1988, they found the loan, which had been secured by the Bush partnership, in default.

As Jeb's father was finishing his second term as vice-president and running for the presidency, federal regulators had two options: to get Jeb Bush and his partner to repay the loan, or to foreclose on their office building. But regulators came up with a third solution. After reappraising the building, regulators decided it wasn't worth as much as was owed for it. The regulators reduced the amount owed by Bush and his partner from $4.56 million to just $500,000. The pair paid that amount and were allowed to keep their office building. Taxpayers picked up the tab for the unpaid $4 million.

After the Broward Savings deal was revealed, Jeb described himself and his partner as "victims of circumstances." (snip/)

http://www.misunderstood.cc/politics/bushfamily.html


Miami Cuban "exile" Armando Codina

(snip) Gov. Jeb Bush has said that after college, he was on his own financially and made his own way through his own hard work. So what if that "hard work" was for his father's campaign, and for corporations run by his father's friends. While working at IntrAmerica Investments, a real estate development firm owned by Bush Sr. supporter Armando Codina, Bush's salary jumped six figures in about six years. He has said his family name wasn't an advantage but spent much of his career wooing clients who wanted to get next to his family. He was cut in on investment deals, even though he didn't actually have any cash to invest, and he walked away from scandals involving attempts to defraud the U.S. government, claiming that he wasn't a fraud but a dupe. Only he knows which is true, but it's clear that if he hadn't used his family connections to do favors for his wealthy comrades, some of the scandals wouldn't have happened.

http://www.whoseflorida.com/10_reasons_not_to_vote_for_jeb_b.htm

[0rganism]

8. Forget Florida. It's a done deal

Even if Jeb wasn't directly involved, there are still the funnyvote machines, the racism, and the cuban exile-mafia to deal with. 2000 is probably as close as it will get for Dems down there for a long time to come. Louisiana is probably a better bet than Florida at this point.

The smart Democratic nominee would not neglect the state entirely, but certainly not campaign there in any way that hindered campaigns in must-win New England and Midwest states. New Hampshire will be in play again (its 4 electoral votes could have tipped the scales in 2000), New Mexico is as confused as ever, Arizona could be a surprise Democratic pick-up, and depending on the nominee, the Dems could actually win Tennessee or Arkansas this time around. There are much more fruitful places to look for those electoral votes than corrupt, broken Florida. My Florida campaign, were I the nominee, would center on how incredibly screwed up Jeb's little racket is, a pure attack on the governor and maybe Bitch Harris, nothing else. Maybe promise full citizenship to Floridian Dems who successfully journey to another state.

And what these fellows writing articles prefer to over look is... THERE WAS NEVER A RECOUNT! ALL OF THEM STOPPED BEFORE THE VOTES WERE COUNTED. Gore won that state by tens of thousands of discernable overvotes, but apparently we are not allowed to think such thoughts in this "democracy" of ours.

[dusty64]

9. I resent the use of the word

"reelection" in the headline.

[Kusala]

10. The florida re-elect Bush plan in 4 easy steps!

Step 1: "Get those n's off the voter rolls!"
Step 2: "Make sure all the counties are running DIEBOLD!"
Step 3: "Hello, Scalia? Just making sure our boys still control the
SCLM"
Step 4: "Ok, Let's go! Time to scam Florida for my bro again!"