Enough! Word is out Jeb is to rehabilitate the Bush brand. Let's look at the real Jeb in Florida.

madfloridian

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Sat Dec-13-08 12:28 AM
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Enough! Word is out Jeb is to rehabilitate the Bush brand. Let's look at the real Jeb in Florida.

I got the pure shivers today when I read William March's column in the Tampa Tribune. To think of Jeb Bush as a senator after what he has done to this state literally sickens me. I don't know how much is hype by friendly media sources, and how much is really truly Jeb Love. I mean 70 something percent of Republicans love Sarah Palin, so you just never know.

Buzz Builds

TAMPA - He could fill a Republican leadership void in Washington. He could steer the national agenda in his own conservative direction. And maybe he could rehabilitate the Bush political brand.

Those are reasons why some friends and political experts say Jeb Bush is leaning toward doing something he always said he never wanted to do: run for the U.S. Senate.

Bush has said publicly only that he is considering running for the seat Florida Sen. Mel Martinez will leave when his term is up in 2010.

But friends and political associates say that behind the scenes, he's being deluged by Republicans urging him to.

Let's look back at his tenure as governor. I can only mention a few of the more annoying things in one post.

Let's start with the tragic case of young Rilya Wilson.

Woman Accused of Killing A Missing Child in Florida

A caretaker for Rilya Wilson, the foster child whose disappearance four years ago exposed serious flaws in Florida's child-welfare system, was indicted Wednesday on charges of murdering the girl, who was 4 years old when she vanished. The caretaker, Geralyn Graham, was also charged with kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. Rilya's body has never been found.

More from the NYT article:

The state realized the girl was missing only after a new caseworker tried to check on her at Ms. Graham's house. Ms. Graham is already serving a three-year prison sentence on unrelated fraud charges. The state charged her last summer with aggravated child abuse, saying that Ms. Graham had locked Rilya in a cage, and with kidnapping, saying that she had removed Rilya from the custody of her official guardian, Pamela Graham.

Pamela Graham is not related to Geralyn Graham, but the two women lived together. Pamela Graham was arrested last summer on lesser charges of neglect and abuse, and struck a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against Geralyn Graham.

The outrage that added to the tragedy was that Jeb Bush publicly accused the two women of being lesbians...in a joking and rude manner. In front of a reporter and others.

Jeb Bush angers gay rights groups

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told a delegation of lawmakers that he had "some juicy details" about the sexual orientation of a missing Miami girl's caretakers.

During a meeting Wednesday, Bush implied that the two women, who had just been charged with fraud stemming from the investigation into Rilya Wilson's disappearance, were lesbians.

"As (Pamela Graham) was being arrested, she told her co-workers, ' Tell my wife I've been arrested.' The wife is the grandmother, and the aunt is the husband," Bush explained, using his fingers to indicate quotation marks to emphasize the word "grandmother."

"Bet you ...

He later tried to backtrack, but the damage was done.

He was so arrogant he openly bragged about "devious plans" to overturn the class size amendment.

He said he had a plan to control teachers' salaries at the legislative level by taking it out of the hands of the local school boards...then he said he would not talk about it until after the election.

This is from the St. Pete Times 2002:

The Governor plays rough

TALLAHASSEE -- It has been no secret in this company town that Jeb Bush and his buddies play rough. Now, the world knows, thanks to the governor having boasted of "devious plans" and other strategies to a group of Panhandle politicians. Among them was reporter Alisa LaPolt of the Gannett News Service. She has covered Bush since the second month of his administration, but he apparently did not recognize her as a journalist. And so, in an unguarded moment, the other Jeb Bush came out.

Was it the warm and cuddly fellow who gets traffic lights for school kids? Not exactly.

-- This one cracks wise and crudely about the sexual orientation of a missing child's purported caregivers.

-- He schemes to sabotage the class-size amendment, if voters approve it.

"I have a couple of devious plans if this thing passes," he said. Rather than respond in good faith to simply raise taxes (or repeal the tax cuts that could have paid for it) he'd send them another amendment presumably painting the tax and budget choices as horribly as possible.

-- He may try to get off the hook of the teacher pay issue by having the Legislature prescribe salaries. But he may wait until after the campaign to float this, as it would be a "philosophical reversal" that would be inconvenient to explain on the campaign trail.

Remember when the Florida school pension fund was under investigation back in 2002? As a retired teacher I surely remember. He managed to get Janet Rehnquist, daughter of Judge Rehnquist, to delay the investigation until after the election.

Timing Of Florida Probe Is Questioned

AP) At the request of Gov. Jeb Bush's office, the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department ordered delays in a federal audit of Florida's pension fund that ensured the review wouldn't be completed before Bush won re-election, officials say.

The delays by Janet Rehnquist, daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, are now being investigated by Congress.

A former Rehnquist deputy, who recently retired, told The Associated Press he couldn't recall another case during his quarter-century career with the watchdog agency in which an inspector general intervened personally to postpone an audit.

"I began to smell politics," said Tom Roslewicz, the now retired deputy inspector general for audits in the agency that primarily investigates fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs.

I think the investigation went the way of all Bush investigations. Nowhere.

Finally an important video of Jeb Bush, Ileana Ros Lehtinen, and their support of Orlando Bosch.

Jeb Bush, Ileana Ros Lehtinen, and Orlando Bosch...strange companions

The political pressure to grant Bosch a pardon was begun during the congressional campaign run by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, herself a Cuban American, and overseen by her campaign manager Jeb Bush. The resultant pardon reputedly saw huge celebrations in Miami, in what was then called 'Free Orlando Day"

There seems to be no shame among Republicans for what the Bush family has done to America. I believe they would nominate Jeb Bush for Senate here in a heartbeat. I don't know if he would win, but he would be their favorite.

Those are only the beginning of his legacy here in Florida. It will be coming out in bits and pieces, and it will be truly devastating.