October 8, 2002
JEB BUSH SMARM CORNER
(For the latest news in the humanitarian effort to remove Smarmy Jeb from the Florida governor's mansion, see evictjeb.com)
October 8, 2002
Brother Jeb has been getting a lot of headlines lately, so many it's getting hard to keep up. So it might be good to just gather a few together and see what we are getting.
These headlines about Brother Jeb's "devious plans" are apparently quoting Jeb himself. The boy apparently used the phrase amid a group of politicos he presumed to be as sleazy as himself, but didn't realize there was a reporter in the room, Alisa LaPolt of the Gannett News Service. And worse,the reporter had a tape recorder, making it hard to deny.
LaPolt had been covering Bush since the second month of his reign, but he apparently didn't recognize her among the Florida legislators he was meeting with and she recorded him saying he had a "devious plan" for killing a proposition even if the voters approve it in an upcoming referendum.
The proposal is a constitutional amendment that would limit class size. Polls are showing that it will win with an 80% majority.
But it won't matter, Jeb said, because he would see to it that the measure would die for lack of funding. That was his devious plan, well described by Jebby himself. (See The Pensacola News-Journal.
The News-Journal describes the governor as "clearly annoyed" when reporters first asked him about it, but it was on tape, so the shrugging off didn't work. So Jeb said he was "being sarcastic." Well, you can't deny that, he was being sarcastic indeed, and worse. He was proposing to kill an amendment that the public voted for. This is just an open statement of the kind of attitude the Bushes have always displayed for the public in their actions, even though they rattle off a lot of sanctimious America-talk when the cameras are rolling.
They are clearly aristocrats, in their own minds. They rule by tradition, if not by divine right they think. So when he is caught in any sort of sleazy act, his reaction is not one of acceptance of his responsibility as an elected official, but it is the annoyance of the royal that anyone would question his license to do whatever he pleases. The sense of entitlement of these spoiled brats is colossal.
So his wife comes home from Europe with tens of thousands of dollars worth of undeclared -- i.e. smuggled -- jewelry, and he says publicly, it's no one's business what my wife buys on a trip. He's so used to not having laws apply to him, he interpreted it only as someone making a comment about how bloody rich they are that they can spend so much on jewelry.
These guys are so hoity toity it never even occurs to them that they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They've had their hands in the cookie jar their whole lives. They really don't know what "obeying the law" means. They've never had to obey the laws of the common man their whole lives.
Bush also took some heat for making some snide crack about the parents of a missing child being lesbians. It certainly gives some sense of the character of the man, and of his sense of values that that is his reaction to a tragic incident involving a little girl.
Regarding the sleaziness of this particular member of the Bush clan, one could write a hefty volume. But for now, here are some other links to more juicy details Bush-style.
Those Darn Bush Boys!
The St.
Petersburg Times
The Florida
Capital News (with sound) Listen to it and decide for yourself if you think Jeb was just
kidding.
Jeb's fast and loose business career is touched on by The Miami Herald
CNN reports on Jeb's daugher Noelle, who has a crack problem like her Uncle George used to. Who can blame her for using drugs? Can you imagine being born into the Bush family? It is fine that the law is lenient with her, but why do the Bushes demand draconian laws to apply to other people who use the same drugs?
The Palm Beach Post describes how Jeb blew $32 million in Title I federal aid to education, then tries to accuse his opponent of having a plan that would cause the state to lose Title I money.
Florida Democratic Party on Jeb's devious plans.
See "Jeb Bush Angers Gay Rights Groups" in The Guardian.
The Orlando Sentinel tells how Jeb's opponent has now caught up with him in the polls.
The Tampa Tribune here explains how Jeb lied about how his opponent's education plan would cause the state to lose $2.5 billion.
See "All Hat and No Cattle: for more fabulous stories of those wild and crazy Bush boys!.
-- By David Cogswell