Jeb Bush's Intolerance Hypocrisy

"Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith. Federal authorities are demanding obedience, in complete disregard of religious conscience – and in a free society, the answer is no."

Jeb Bush, accusing President Barack Obama of being religiously intolerant.

The irony of Bush's statement is rich. Bush made his comments at the commencement address at Liberty University.

Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty University, has a lengthy his of supporting segregation. Falwell was against the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education. Falwell's own words.

“If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn the line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.”

Jeb Bush is not a dumb man. He is aware of Falwell's controversial history. Bush spoke at Liberty University to pander to the xenophobic base of the Republican Party.

No Love For Jeb Bush and Chris Christie At CPAC

Fake journalist Sean Hannity ran off names of potential presidential candidates to the crowd at CPAC. Scott Walker and Rand Paul got the biggest cheers. The crowd booed when the names of Jeb Bush and Chris Christie were mentioned. Christie has avoided talking about immigration reform. Bush has shown an openness to some dorm of immigration reform in the past. The crowd at CPAC is booing because Christie and Bush aren't racist enough for their tastes.

Plugs of the Day

Check out Susan Smith's Facebook page "Jeb Fails Education. Jeb Bush's education record in Florida is atrocious. I wrote this post on the lowlights of Bush's education policies during his tenure as Governor.

On a lighter note: check out the Marco Rubio Facebook parody page "Dubious Rubio".

Jeb Bush Doesn't Love Anal Sex

A man on a mission like Jeb Bush probably sticks to the missionary position. In a 1994 Miami Herald op-ed, the Jebster went full Rick Santorum on the issue of sodomy.

In the editorial, published in the Miami Herald that summer, Bush drew a parallel between legal protection for gays and the question, "[Should] sodomy be elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion? My answer is No."

"The statement that the governor must stand up for all people on all matters is just silly," Bush wrote, arguing that government does not defend every Floridian "with equal verve and enthusiasm." He listed a string of examples: "Polluters, pedophiles, pornographers, drunk drivers, and developers without proper permits."

Jeb went on to be a governor that doesn't represent all people equally. That isn't surprising. Bush is attempting to rebrand himself as less homophobic. So far his efforts have been less than stellar.

I'm curious. Does Jeb Bush feel that heterosexual couples should not allowed to legally practice anal sex in their bedrooms? These heterosexual couple are in what Bush and other Republicans would call a traditional marriage. Bush wrote that sodomy doesn't require legal protection.

For the record: the Supreme Court made it clear that anal sex is protected.

The Lawrence v. Texas ruling found that the Texas anti-sodomy law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Short answer: you can't prosecute gay couple for engaging in anal sex and allow straight couple to engage in the same sexual activity.

Laws like this happen when elected leaders feel they can pick and choose what laws they will enforce. Jeb Bush is such an elected official. Bush would later sign Terri's Law. The Florida Supreme Court found it unconstitutional on the ground that Bush and the Florida legislature illegally overruled the judicial branch.

Bush's 1994 op-ed revealed a man who will only enforce the laws that agree with his worldview.

Jeb Bush Hates Public School Teachers

Shocking news: Jeb Bush comes out in favor of the New York lawsuit to end teacher tenure.

“There will be no equality in education until we transition to a system that prioritizes academic achievement for children over job security for adults. Teachers have a tremendous impact on the lives of students, particularly the most disadvantaged. When ineffective teachers are allowed to remain in the classroom because of union protections and antiquated laws, it is not only a disservice to students but also to the many wonderful teachers dedicated to excellence in education.

“The effort to end this injustice now moves to New York, where seven families are following in the footsteps of their California peers by demanding access to high quality teachers. I admire their courage in this historic undertaking, and have the deepest appreciation for Campbell Brown in assisting them. Ultimately, I am hopeful that a growing consensus for reform policies that reward and incentivize quality teaching will make the need to seek judicial relief unnecessary in the future.”

Former CNN anchor Campbell Brown organized seven New York families to file this lawsuit. Brown's husband, Dan Senor, is a member of the board of the New York affiliate of StudentsFirst. The organization StudentsFirst is run by Michelle Rhee. One of the goals of StudentsFirst is to destroy teachers unions.

“The problem to date has been that you’ve had these incredibly powerful teachers unions that have lots of resources, and they use those resources to have influence on the political process,” Rhee said last year during an interview at the Commonwealth Club of California. Rhee said StudentsFirst is the first education-oriented national interest group to seriously challenge the unions.

Since leaving Washington, Rhee has backed legislation curbing collective bargaining rights in several states. In the 18 states where the group is active, StudentsFirst has fought to eliminate “last in, first out” provisions in teachers’ contracts and to increase the role that quantitative evaluations play in teachers’ job security.

The StudentsFirst website calls for the end of teacher tenure.

Tenure in K–12 education today means that teachers (and, in many cases, principals) are granted a "job for life" after a relatively short time in the classroom — usually without any serious attempt to evaluate the teacher's effectiveness. In most states, tenure is essentially automatic after two or three years, barring criminal or extreme misconduct. Once granted, the rules and regulations accompanying tenure or permanent contracts make removing even the most unmotivated and ineffective teachers nearly impossible. These policies do nothing to advance the interests of students, but instead serve only to protect adult jobs.

If tenure merely protected teachers from being fired for arbitrary or capricious reasons, StudentsFirst would support it. Professionals should never be concerned they might lose their jobs because of their age, sex, religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Similarly, we support professionals' rights to fight back if they are wrongfully terminated. Fortunately, well-established federal and state policies allow teachers to challenge wrongful actions and prevent discriminatory firing in public education. Tenure is simply not needed to protect such rights.

To serve the interest of students, tenure must be eliminated so that teachers feel best protected by the quality of their work and the role they play on the teaching team.

Grover Norquist, in a moment of candor, admitted that the GOP wants to bust teachers unions to help Republicans win elections.

GROVER NORQUIST: "We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012. And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions' and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

Under Bush, Florida had the lowest high school graduation rate two years straight. The bipartisan the Constitutional Accountability Commission found that Bush failed to meet the Florida constitutional requirement of providing a high quality education.

Former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, and former Comptroller Bob Milligan, a Republican, chaired the commission and were on hand Tuesday to suggest that more money be spent on schools. They also urged creation of a system that compares Florida's performance to other states.

If Florida does nothing, it will remain vulnerable to a court challenge, the commission suggests.

"The last thing we want to have happen is for the educational system of this state to be put under court order or declared unconstitutional as it has in some other states," Butterworth said.

Bush's education record as Governor is horrible. Bush isn't interested in improving education. Bush does hate teachers unions. This quote is from Bush's speech at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

We can’t just outsource public education to bureaucracies and public education unions and hope for the best.

We certainly can't expect the best education results from Jeb Bush.

Jeb Bush At Odds With GOP On Immigration

I agree with Tengrain on Jeb Bush not running for President in 2016.

The best antidote to illegal immigration is a functioning system of legal immigration… Now is the time for House Republicans to demonstrate leadership on this issue. Congress should not use the present crisis as an excuse to defer comprehensive immigration reform.…we have too often seen what happens when the president oversteps his constitutional authority. Avoiding similar disastrous results will require legislative action by both parties.

Hell will freeze over before Republicans in the House "demonstrate leadership" on immigration reform. House Speaker John Boehner has blamed President Barack Obama for the fact that the House has not voted on immigration reform.

“We’re at a point where my colleagues don’t trust that the president will implement the law the way we would see it passed,” Boehner said at an event hosted by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio. “So I’ve put the ball back in the president’s court. He’s going to have to do something to demonstrate some level of trustworthiness.”

Memo to John Boehner: Obama does not run the House of Representatives. You do.

Sen. Marco Rubio released a statement supporting sending new illegal immigrants back to their home countries faster.

“Today I reiterated with our Central American counterparts that it is they who must build a better future at home for their people, with the U.S. as a supportive partner. In light of the recent surge in unlawful border crossings, they owe it to their people to make clear that these dangerous journeys to the U.S. they’ve undertaken are not worth risking their lives for since they will inevitably lead them back to where they started.

Sen. Ted Cruz is proposing withholding funding from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. All this would do is leave undocumented children in legal limbo for a lonfer period of time. Rubio and Cruz are grandstanding to secure the support of the tea party debate. The majority of the GOP establishment doesn't share Jeb Bush's desire to move forward on immigration reform.

Nan Rich Goes on the Offensive Against Crist

Democratic candidate for governor, Nan Rich, is fundraising off of Charlie Crist's professed love of Jeb Bush The Rich campaign sent sent out this email from Buddy MacKay.

Did you hear or read what Charlie Crist recently said about Jeb Bush? Itâs hard to believe â but, sadly, itâs true.

When a radio host asked Charlie Crist if Jeb Bush would be a good president Crist said âYeah, I think he probably would. He made a great governorâ¦â (Click here to read the story.)

I canât understand how Crist, or any real Democrat, could think that Bushâs policies -- policies that hurt our public schools, the environment, and especially the middle class â made him a âgreatâ governor.

Frankly, it was frustrating for me to watch Jeb Bush undo so much of the good that Lawton Chiles and I worked to achieve as the last Democratic Governors of Florida.

I want a real Democrat in Tallahassee because I believe that staying true to Democratic principles is the right path for Florida. That is why I'm standing with Nan Rich, and I hope you will too.

It is time for Rich to go on the attack against Crist. It is the only chance Rich has to win the primary. Rich has to make Crist undesirable to Democratic voters.

Charlie Crist Say Jeb Would Make a Good President

This will drive progressives crazy. Democratic candidate for Governor, Charlie Crist, told radio host Michael Smerconish that Jeb Bush would make a good President.

SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish: “Would Jeb [Bush] make a good president?”

Former FL Governor Charlie Crist: “Yeah, I think he probably would. He made a great governor, in my humble opinion. He’s a good man…I don’t agree with him on everything…but when I saw him as Governor [of Florida] when I was Attorney General—and they’re elected separately in Florida—we had a lot of hurricanes, and Jeb Bush did a great job protecting our beautiful Florida during that [time].”

I don't miss Jeb and don't want to see him ever become President. Crist invoke Jeb's name during a recent visit to Morning Joe.

“Jeb Bush said it better than I can say it,” Crist said. “He said today’s Republican Party is perceived as being anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-gay couples, anti-environment, anti-education. I mean, pretty soon, there’s nobody left in the room.”

I doubt Bush hearts Crist after his leaving of the Republican Party. Crist is making a political calculation that Floridians really love all things Jeb. Crist is running to the left to prove he's a Democrat and professing a man crush on Jeb. I have no idea if this political calculation will work. However, I doubt Crist cares what I think.

Barbara Bush on Jeb Running For President

Barbara Bush really doesn't want to see Jeb run for President of the United States. Mrs. Bush makes good points on how there are other ways to serve and the White House shouldn't be just for someone with the last name Bush or Clinton.

Meet Jason Richwine, White Nationalist At the Heritage Foundation

Jeb Bush and Hispanic Republicans are pushing back against the Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine. Richwine is a researcher at the bogus think tank. Richwine's Harvard dissertation made the outlandlish claim that Hispanics have lower IQs. Bush and the Hispanic Network sent out this press release.

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of the Hispanic Leadership Network’s (HLN) National Advisory Committee released the following statement regarding the inflammatory remarks on immigrants’ intelligence by the Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine. The HLN Advisory Committee signees are: Governor Jeb Bush, Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, Mario Rodriguez, Massey Villarreal, Jovita Carranza and HLN's executive director, Jennifer S. Korn.

“The beliefs espoused by the Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine are ignorant and reflect a lack of understanding of our immigration system and the American immigrant experience. American Hispanics are not a community of low intelligence but rather one of entrepreneurship and upward mobility. This lack of understanding, from the author himself of Heritage’s immigration study, only further discredits their already controversial and flawed findings. This is particularly disappointing because of our respect for the Heritage Foundation and their traditions of high standards, rigorous work, and support for immigration reform. We look forward to the next Heritage study that excludes such obvious biases and flawed starting points.”

The Hispanic Leadership Network began its efforts in 2011 and strives to engage the Hispanic community on center-right issues that will restore opportunity and prosperity in America.

If you are wondering if Richwine is a racist then wonder no more. Richwine has written for the website AlternativeRight.com. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented the website's history of racism.

At “Alternative Right,” Spencer’s senior contributing editors are Peter Brimelow and Paul Gottfried. Brimelow founded VDARE.com, an anti-immigrant website, and he has described “Alternative Right” as a project of the VDARE Foundation. Gottfried has been a contributor to “Taki’s Magazine” and has spoken at conferences of the white nationalist American Renaissance magazine, whose editor has written that black people are incapable of sustaining any kind of civilization. Gottfried gave a speech at the inaugural meeting of the H.L. Mencken Club in November 2008 titled, “The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right.” Brimelow was the keynote speaker at that event, and Spencer the master of ceremonies. Spencer and Gottfried also appeared together last October on “The Political Cesspool,” a racist and anti-Semitic radio program.

One of the bloggers at “Alternative Right” is Richard Hoste, who recently wrote that “low-IQ Mexican immigration is the greatest threat to America.” He also wrote: “Schools should stop wasting time trying to close achievement gaps. And not only do whites have nothing to feel guilty about, they are the best thing to ever happen to blacks. Even ignoring race, humanity will not move forward through equality or by raising up the really stupid to the level of just plain stupid.” Finally, Hoste had this pithy observation: “While there’s more miscegenation [interracial sex] than in the past … we should be heartened that white teenage girls aren’t passing themselves around in black neighborhoods.”

On the AlternativeRight.com website made the claim that if Hispanic immigrants are allowed to become U.S. citizens then their children will become harden criminals.

An even more serious problem with Unz's analysis is his glossing over of the generational issue. U.S.-born Hispanics are much more likely to be incarcerated than foreign-born Hispanics. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, this is a finding that is well known to researchers in the field, and it implies that Hispanic crime will become more of a problem as time goes on, not less.

While neighborhoods with mostly first-generation Hispanics do not have a large crime problem, entrenched Hispanic communities are usually more dangerous. In many of Unz's most prominent examples of low-crime Hispanic communities -- Silicon Valley, the Jackson Heights section of Queens, even Los Angeles proper -- the adult Hispanic population is primarily immigrant.

Richwine makes the bizarre argument Hispanic crime is skyrocket the the better educated and more economically mobile they become.

Unz adds: "There actually does exist a connection between poverty and crime ... and ... there is every reason to expect this crime rate will drop further as Hispanics continue to move up the economic ladder." Wrong. Consider again what happens between the first and second generations. The children of Hispanic immigrants are much wealthier and better educated than their parents, but they also commit crimes at higher rates. The poverty-crime correlation here is negative, not positive.

The fact that the Heritage Foundation would hire Richwine says much about the credibility of their think tank.

From Mitt to Jeb

Via Sheree: looks like some Republicans are already thinking about 2016.

Jeb's Late Endorsement of Romney

Rick Klein of ABC News added a siren to his tweet. This is the most unsurprising endorsement ever.

SIREN. Jeb Bush statement: "I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party’s nomination."

Bush is at his core an establishment Republican. Bush views Romney as the most responsible adult in the field. Ron Paul is not a consideration for Bush. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are not Bush's kind of Republican, in the way Katherine Harris did not meet the Bush standard.

Mitt Romney has the most delegates and will become the nominee. Did Klein think Bush was going to endorse Herman Cain? This endorsement isn't a major news story. The fact that Jeb waited so long to endorse Romney shows a lack of faith in Romney's ability to secure the nomination. The Bush endorsement would have been huge news before New Hampshire. The timing of the endorsement now will last one day in the news cycle.

Stand Your Ground

"Stand your ground is the dumbest law ever put on the books."

Wille Meggs, Florida State Attorney.

The people responsible for the Stand Your Ground law are former Gov. Jeb Bush and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. Bush signed Stand Your Ground into law in 2005. Hammer has defended the law.

"The law was written very carefully and it means what it says: You have a right to protect yourself," she said.

Florida elected Republicans are terrified of Hammer's wrath. Hammer pushed a bill that allowed citizens to take guns into the state capital. In an environment where Gabrielle Giffords is shot by an enraged citizen how is this a good idea? Security is not even allowed to ask if someone is carrying a gun in the capital. Florida Republican legislators are willing to place their lives at risk because they fear a lobbyist. That is insane.

Which brings us to the Trayvon Martin tragedy. Mother Jones has audio of the 911 calls made to the dispatchers. George Zimmerman was told by a dispatcher not to go after Martin.

"Are you following him? the dispatcher asked. Zimmerman replied: "Yep."

"Okay, we don't need to do that," the dispatcher warned.

Zimmerman ignored the dispatcher. People in the neighborhood called about a man on top of another person. There was screaming that didn't sound like Zimmerman's voice. The end result was Martin being shot to death.

Zimmerman is currently a free man. Zimmerman said he was standing his ground and felt threatened by a 14 year-old boy.

Florida House Brings Back Drug Testing

Gov. Rick Scott and Republicans in the Florida legislature haven't learned from their defeat in court. The Florida passed passed HB 1205. The bill would make it mandatory for state workers to submit to a drug

Drug-free Workplaces: Requires drug testing to be conducted within each state agency's appropriation; authorizes agencies within state government to require employees to submit to periodic random drug testing; revises provisions relating to discharging or disciplining certain employees; authorizes agency to refer employee, at employee's expense, to employee assistance program or alcohol & drug rehabilitation program if not discharged; requires employer to transfer employee to job assignment he or she can perform safely & effectively while participating in employee assistance program or alcohol & drug rehabilitation program or place employee on leave status if such position is unavailable; authorizes employee to use accumulated leave credits before being placed on leave without pay; provides that employer remains qualified for insurer rate plan that discounts rates for workers' compensation & employer's liability insurance policies if employer maintains drug-free workplace program that is broader in scope than that provided for by standards & procedures established in act; authorizes public employer to conduct random drug tests of certain employees under specified conditions; provides requirements for public sector employer assigning public sector employee to position other than mandatory-testing position.

Effective Date: July 1, 2012

The Supreme Court ruled, in Skinner v. Railway Lab. Execs Ass'n that state employees can be randonly tested, if public safety is at risk. Otherwise, it is a violation of the Fourth amendment. Florida has tried to test state workers before under Gov. Jeb Bush. Roderick Wenzel took the Department of Juvenile Justice to court. Wenzel objected to being drug-tested by the DJJ. The ACLU represented Wenzel and won. Judge Robert Hinkle found the reasoning to randomly drug test Wenzel laughable.

But as Chandler teachers, this test cannot be met by ordinary public employees , or even high public officials, who work in offices and ought to be sober, but who do not have direct contact with the drug trade, and whose impairment would not pose the kind of public safety risk that attends to operation of a train or other dangerous instrumentality.

Pressed at oral argument to explain just what a drug-using long-range planner might do with his position, the defense in the case came up short. The suggestion was made that the planner could access confidential information on juveniles, learning the identity of a drug offender, and then contact that person or his family and demand drugs, threatening adverse consequences for any failure to go along. The defense offered no evidence that in the real world any such scheme had ever been devised, let alone carried out, even once, in Florida or anywhere else. To call this theory far-fetch would be charitable.

State Rep. Joe Negron is hardly a bleeding heart liberal. Negron sees no need for HB 1205.

“I haven’t been running across drug-addled employees who haven’t been able to do their jobs,” said Sen. Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican with a libertarian streak. “I’ve heard no evidence whatsoever why we need it."

Before the unemployment compensation drug testing, signed by Scott, was blocked by the courts, only 2 percent of people applying for unemployment tested positive. The drug testing was actually increasing expenses for the state. The state had to payback unemployment recipients that paid to be tested. Scott never got the magical savings he promised. There really is no evidence that state-wide drug testing is needed.

Rick Scott Fires Black People

It says a lot about Gov. Rick Scott when former Gov. Jeb Bush comes off as the voice of reason. There is a reason why the Scott campaign don't want the lost e-mails to be found. The emails will reveal how callous Scott and his transition team is.

Bush emailed Scott's campaign manager Susie Wiles during the transition. Bush asked why is the Scott Team firing black people.

"All three are African American, non-political and good workers," Bush wrote to Wiles.

Scott had a history of discriminatory hiring and firing practices. David Yarian worked for Scott's Solantic clinics. Yarian told Salon.com of Scott's refusal to hire brown-skinned people.


After the attacks on Sept. 11, Yarian says that Scott phoned him and stated that he should be careful not to hire anyone of Middle Eastern descent because they might scare off customers. At the time, Yarian was willing to excuse the directive as part of the collective shock the country was going through.

In November, though, Yarian interviewed a Hispanic man for a supervisory nurse position. "He was great. He had all the qualities and experience I was after," Yarian says. "But he had a slight accent. When Rick found out, he said, 'Nope. All our employees have to be mainstream.'"


One of the black people fired by Carolyn "Freda" King. She had lost her son, Army Pfc. Brandon King, in August of 2010. Another termination was Mavis Knight. Bush wrote to Wiles that Knight ""four governors well."

Scott did use of of the vacancies to add a tea party activist to the external affairs office. Shockingly, Scott's media relations handler Brian Burgess had no comment. Neither did Scott. That tells you how bad these firings stink.

Quote of the Day

“You never say never. This is a standard answer that I’ve kind of learned how to give which is — you never say never, but I never rule out being on Dancing with the Stars either.”

Jeb Bush, on the possibility of running for president in 2012.

If Bush wanted to he would have gotten into the race by now.

News Flash: Jeb Bush Still Not Running

The American Prospect’s Jamelle Bouie believes that Jeb Bush has no chance of getting the Republican presidential nomination. Bouie maintains that Bush is missing the invisible primary.

At this stage in the primary, as the New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny pointed out this morning, the focus is on fundraising and building elite support. The presidential candidates are scrambling to claim fundraisers and top party donors for their own campaigns, and deny them to rivals. What’s more, they’re also trying to secure coveted endorsements.

I don't disagree with that. Now is the time for candidates to build their state campaigns, recruit fundraisers and get their operations off the ground. There is also the issue that Bush is unlikely to run. If Bush is going to run he is going to forcefully campaign. Bush isn't going to play games like Rick Perry and Sarah Palin.

Side note: I don't believe Palin is going to run.

Privatization of FLA Prisons Failed Before & Will Again

A $66.5 billion budget proposal to privatize prisons is moving forward in the Florida House Appropriations Committee. Republicans have once claimed that privatization would be the gateway to taxpayers saving. These days, Republicans say government is evil and the private sector is righteous. Never-mind that these same Republicans receive a government paycheck.

It is hard for Republicans to say that privatization will either save money or work more effectually? The privatization mandate started by Gov. Jeb Bush yielded no examples of fiscal conservatism.

The Department of Children & Families found that privatization led to child abuse. Bush's former Corrections Secretary Jim Crosby pleaded guilty to receiving kickback money from contractors.

Crosby's downfall came after a particularly difficult 2005.

The rollout of Bush's most ambitious single contract, handing over all state personnel functions to private company Convergys, went terribly.

The company repeatedly stumbled in cutting paychecks for state employees or accurately providing employee benefits.

Compounding the controversy were allegations that a Convergys' subcontractor shipped state employees' personal information to India for data processing.

Is this what Republicans consider the virtues how how the free market work better than government. There is also Ray Samson inserting an earmark to award a prison contract to Xe Services LLC. The company was formerly known as Blackwater. Even Republicans aren't singing the praises of the company investigating for the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Bush's own inspector general Bill Monroe could not find if privatization saved taxpayers. The Bush administration kept horrible records of private contracts. Former efficiency expert Ruth Sykes said Bush ruled by fear and would not heed warning about the contracts.

"As I told the governor, people have the answers, your employees have the answers," she told me at the time. "They know where the waste is; they know where the problems are. They will help you if you let them, if they have the motivation to help."

What state employees had under Bush was fear. "You feel like you can't voice your opinion and be critical," Sykes said back then. "I felt like I was exposing things - 'This is a different way, consider this' - and this is what I was brought here to do."

A state audit could not find any savings from privatization under Bush. It would seem prisons and other government departments did not work more efficiently under privatization. What was found that companies that awarded campaigns contributions to Republicans got Florida government contracts. It was also a nice way for Bush to make government union members lose their jobs.

I was once open to privatization. Anyone who has stood in line at the Department of Motor Vehicle or the post office knows government isn't perfect. The problem is Republicans have no interest in overseeing their own policies and place politics above governing. This is why the GOP's policy proposals always fail. There have been too many examples of incompetence and campaign-financing greed. Republicans don't deserve the benefit of the doubt on privatization.

Triangulation Man: Obama & Jeb Bush BFF

The latest exciting chapter of Triangulation Man

Our less than fearless hero, Triangulation Man, will appear at Miami Central Senior High with former Gov. Jeb Bush.

WASHINGTON -- — President Barack Obama will share a political stage at a Miami high school Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, giving the president’s education initiative a bi-partisan boost.

The Republican governor, who last summer criticized Obama as “childish” for continuing to blame the sluggish economy on former President George W. Bush, will join the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Miami Central Senior High School where Obama is to deliver remarks on his push for improving U.S. schools.

Despite his spirited defense of his brother, Bush has lauded some of Obama’s education efforts and has said he believes education is one area where the political parties can find common ground.

Getting a compliment on education policy from Bush is the basketball equivalent of Shaquille O'Neal complimenting your free throw skills.



How bad were Jeb Bush's education policies? Let me tell you.
Read more »

Fox News Poll on Obama v. Jeb Bush

Fox News has a poll showing that President Obama would trounce Jeb Bush.

Obama - 54 percent
Bush - 34 percent

Bush is polling at Sarah Palin numbers. Palin polls 35 percent against Obama's 56 percent. Republicans would argue that Bush has been out of the spotlight for several years. That is certainly true and Bush has repeatedly said he has no plans on running. If Bush mounted a campaign his numbers would probably spike. Palin has been in the spotlight and her numbers are a disaster. My believe is Palin is more interested in making money as a celebrity than governing.

The poll was conducted by Anderson Robbins Research and Shaw & Company Research. Fox News claims the former is a Democratic polling outfit and the latter a Republican firm. I can't find the Shaw & Company Research web site. Anderson Robbins Research's clients page reveals the polling outfit will work for anyone. The polling sample was only 911 registered voters in the United States. Anyone who reads polls knows that is a low sample. Short answer: the poll is interesting but don't take it too seriously.