An Education In Government Appointments

Buried in the story of Charlie Crist rescinding all 283 of Jeb Bush's final appointments is this nugget.

One top administration official said privately that Crist also had been troubled by what the official called the "arrogance" of T. Willard Fair and Phil Handy.

"I think there is some justice in this world," said Jim Warford, the former K-12 schools chancellor who was forced from his job after questioning the validity of Bush's school grading system. "I applaud our new governor."

You may remember Jim Warford. He made this quote about Bush's true intents for public education.

"What I saw was that 90 percent of the energy went to undermining our public schools with vouchers and charters."

Getting rid of Fair and Handy gives Crist enough votes to boot Education Commissioner John Winn. The Commissioner's main accomplishments have been defending Florida's poor national education rankings and ducking the issue of intelligent design.

The Florida Board of Education set themselves up for a fall. Handy and Fair were set to end their terms December 31, 2006. Bush reappointed them both. The board then made Fair chairman and Handy vice-chairman. Fair also told Bush, "In my judgment, there is no greater person on this Earth than you. I love you." Brokeback Mountain jokes aside, that kind of ass kissing certainly didn't hurt getting the chairman post. The only problem was they kissed the wrong Governor's ass. Now they are left to check out the classifieds.