The Wall Street Journal’s kinder, gentler Jeb (The pig needs a different shade of lipstick.)

[seafan]

The WSJ’s kinder, gentler Jeb

By S.V. Date
September 21, 2007

In the Wall Street Journal editorial page’s slam against Gov. Charlie Crist’s insurance policies Friday was this description of Crist’s predecessor, Jeb Bush: “The highly popular Mr. Bush doesn’t make a habit of violating Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment (‘Thou Shalt Not Criticize Fellow Republicans’), but he’s making an exception here.”

Insurance aside, the Journal’s take left Q wondering: Which Jeb Bush exactly was the Journal talking about?

Surely not the same Bush whose staff threatened to defeat Republican senators who didn’t help him pass medical malpractice limits. Or who helped raise millions to take out Republican state Sen. Alex Villalobos for opposing school vouchers. Or who, next month, is scheduled to help South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford raise money so HE can remove Republican legislators in that state who are not conservative enough.

Jeb Bush hammers Crist on insurance

..... Bush criticized Florida's latest efforts at insurance reform - specifically a January special session bill that doubled the state's catastrophe fund to $32-billion and allowed state-backed Citizens Property Insurance to directly compete with the private market.

That is a reversal of Bush's stance when, as governor, he focused on private market solutions, no expansion of the CAT Fund or Citizens, and a state-funded program to help homeowners make their houses more hurricane resistant.

Such solutions "are as bad as the natural disasters themselves," Bush said, adding that "My beloved state of Florida has taken steps along that path."

Without mentioning Gov. Charlie Crist by name, Bush still took aim at the current Republican governor, who inherited the property insurance problem and has all but declared war on State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide and other large insurance companies operating in the state.

Largely forgotten is one other solution Bush and several lawmakers offered in the closing days of the 2006 legislative session: mail every homesteaded property owner a check for $140, supposedly to defray insurance costs.

That idea died when it was learned it would cost the state millions to mail the checks.

....And there you have a slice of the Jeb Bush legacy.


Will someone come and haul this bloviating, bloated tick out of here? It's a case study just crying out for researchers.