Jeb speaking to business and community leaders in Miami.
Session over, Gov. Bush takes off gloves
Posted on 05/14/2002 3:49:27 PM PDT by summer
Jeb speaking to business and community leaders in Miami.
Session over, Gov. Bush takes off gloves
BY PETER WALLSTEN
pwallsten@herald.com
TALLAHASSEE - Within minutes of the gavel's pounding to end the most rancorous period for Florida Republicans since they took control of state government in 1999, Gov. Jeb Bush could barely conceal his glee that the real political season is finally at hand.
He wasted no time bashing the Democrats who have been hitting him harder and harder during the past year.
''Now that I can be a little more partisan since the session is over, the new season has begun,'' the governor declared, standing in the rotunda of the state Capitol midway between the House and the Senate chambers whose leaders have spent months at each other's throats in an egofest that at times threatened to undermine Bush's leadership.
''We're out of spring training,'' Bush said.
Then, touting what he says will be a 6 percent per student increase in education funding thanks to the new budget, he ripped into the records of his Democratic predecessors.
`WHERE WERE THEY?'
''Where were they in the eight years prior to the Republicans gaining control in the Legislature?'' Bush asked. ``Where was the moaning then?''
Bush said it was ''undeniable'' that education has received more money during his first four years in office, calling the Democrats ``sinners.''
'What they'd need to do is say, `I was a sinner, I apologize for my neglect,' then I would respect them a little bit more, but they don't,'' he said.
Democrats and other critics charge that Bush's 6 percent figure does not factor in student growth and other variables that actually make the figure much lower and less impressive-sounding on the campaign trail.
The two leading Democrats seeking to challenge Bush, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Tampa lawyer Bill McBride, have attacked the governor's ''A+'' plan that uses standardized tests to grade schools' performance.
TEACHERS' RESPONSE
Bush's comments Monday drew a rebuke from Tony Welch, a spokesman for Florida's teachers union, which supports Democratic candidates and backed his 1998 opponent, Buddy MacKay.
''My only sin was that I didn't work harder to elect Buddy MacKay,'' Welch said. ``This is vintage Jeb Bush. Your record comes under fire, and you point the finger in another direction.''
Bush -- who enjoys double-digit leads over his closest rivals despite polls showing many Floridians think more money should go to schools -- is clearly eager for the battles to begin.
He sets out today to campaign along the Interstate 4 corridor, with stops in Tampa and Orlando.
STUMP SPEECH
On Monday, hours before he appeared in the Capitol rotunda with House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay, Bush delivered a stump speech to the Miami City Club's Breakfast Forum at the First Union Financial Center in Miami.
He told the group that his favorite governor in history was LeRoy Collins, a Democrat known for his delicate handling of racial tensions in the 1950s and '60s, and paralleled his own record to that of Collins.
Bush referred specifically to one of his most controversial policies, eliminating affirmative action in university admissions and state contracting, to demonstrate that he was following advice that Collins offered in a book that Bush recently read.
''In his book, he talks about how it's important to a leader, [to be] out front,'' Bush said. ``But if you take your ship out to sea to bring people along with you, and you get over the horizon, people can't see you. So the vision becomes cloudy.
''I have tried with imperfection to be a leader that pushes our state to the place where I think we need to be,'' Bush added.
The governor told the Miami group that today's need for instant gratification makes it harder to push programs that take years to have impact. He blamed the MTV hit show The Osbournes, which features the day-to-day family life of rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, for being part of the problem.
`HARDER TO SERVE'
''I refuse to watch it because it's part of our culture that makes it harder for us to serve, it makes it harder for us to do our jobs,'' he said.
Bush also met Monday in Miami with a group of supportive Orthodox rabbis. He talked about Israel, school vouchers, abortion and other issues, according to Rabbi Pinchas Schechter.
But now that the Legislature is finished, Bush will focus most of his energies on touting his education record.
Already, the Republican Party of Florida has spent at least $2 million on English- and Spanish-language TV ads featuring his increased spending on schools.
Democrats will do their best to say Bush should have done more, but the governor said Monday that he has a ``pretty darn good record.''
Herald staff writer Lesley Clark contributed to this report.
Gov. Bush visits with group of 19 rabbis from across
the state at Beth Israel Temple in Miami.
Today's Sarasota Herald-Trib (SHT) had an article on the $50B budget battle, with expenditures broken down by amount, from highest to lowest. In the three counties they listed, Charlotte and Manatee had education as #1 on the list, and in Sarasota it was #2 (at $20M)) right after the "Ringling Museum" at $24M.
And the leftists say we're not spending enough on education! They wouldn't know the truth if they bloodied their shins on it in the dark.
GO JEB!!!
I love this picture! Look at it while singing the "Jews in Space" themesong from Mel Brooks' classic film "History of the World Part I".
Although many Floridians want more money to go to education, many of us want the money education is already getting better spent. There are a few other items that require our attention and our taxpayer dollars.
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