NYT: Storm Offers Jeb Bush a Test and an Opportunity

[DeepModem Mom]

Storm Offers Jeb Bush a Test and an Opportunity
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Published: August 24, 2004


....There is nothing like a disaster to provide a defining moment for a chief executive, testing his leadership and altering his legacy for the better - consider Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York after the 2001 terrorist attacks - or worse. And for Governor Bush, a younger brother of President Bush, the test comes at a critical moment. With a national election less than three months away, he is under intense pressure to deliver a wider margin of victory for his brother in Florida than in 2000, when George Bush won by a mere 537 votes after a recount and court ruling.

That prospect appeared to be flagging in the weeks leading up to the storm, partly because of accusations that the governor was trying to fix the election for his brother. A state list of people believed to be convicted felons, sent to elections supervisors to help them remove such people from the voting rolls, was scrapped under heavy criticism last month after newspaper investigations revealed that it left out almost all Hispanics, who tend to vote Republican.

Mr. Bush was also fending off attacks on the new touch-screen voting systems that Florida's most populous counties will use in November, and distancing himself from a flier that the Republican Party had paid for, which denounced computerized voting and encouraged voters in South Florida to use absentee ballots. But the storm all but snuffed out newspaper articles about Florida's electoral problems ahead of the state primary on Aug. 31. It also eclipsed a legal blow last week to Mr. Bush's beloved but controversial school voucher program, and silenced critics who had been ripping into him all summer.

Even some newspaper columnists and editorial boards often critical of the governor have praised his response to the storm, a rarity for a man whose actions frequently stir controversy. "The hurricane will bring the governor political peace in the near term," said David Niven, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. "It's essentially a requirement of the job that he focus on the hurricane, but it also has political dividends that he's very well aware of."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/national/24jeb.html

[Raster]

1. give me a f*&'ing break. So Florida had a natural crisis, and the...

...governor responded appropriately. That is his job, right? And wow, Florida had a hurricane. Geez, no one saw that coming.

Jeb is a pig-fucker, just like his older brother. The only differences are: (1) he's a smarter pig-fucker and (2) he was an original signee to the Project for the New American Century manifesto, which makes him a more dangerous pig-fucker. But when it all comes down to it, he's still a bush. And from what we hear, the next anointed in the B.F.E.E.

This country would be far better off if there were no bushes holding public office. They could all go back where they came from and NEVER darken any government buildings again.

On edit: It's early Tuesday morning and I'm on a roll. It's time we demand more of our perhaps lawfully elected leaders. gee-dubya has lowered the bar dramatically to the effect that we whistle and applaud when our sometime leaders form complete sentences. No more!!! A "gentleman's C" is not enough. Adequate is not enough.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Even your sig line rocks, jdolsen!

[Raster]

3. Thank you. I live in a perpetual state of political pissed off.

And I'm tired of it. I want more out of our elected. I want politicans that aren't bought and sold like produce at the local farmer's market. And I'm sick and tired of entire families making their living by feeding off of us. And I'm not talking welfare moms. I'm talking the bushes, no beans about it!!! heh heh heh

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. a perpetual state of political pissed off.

Look on the bright side..... there isn't any. :)


Way to express yourself... a little harsh... but then, I think about what the country has had to endure at the hands of these selected officials... and I understand completely..... good job.

[rocktivity]

5. So what happened to the video of the hundreds of bodies?

:shrug:
rocknation

[goclark]

6. Yea, what is happening down there?

Is the body count, 14, 18 or 400?

Why don't we know?

[daleo]

7. Whether he handled the storm badly or well

Has nothing to do with concerns about upcoming electoral fraud.

"With a national election less than three months away, he is under intense pressure to deliver a wider margin of victory for his brother in Florida than in 2000, when George Bush won by a mere 537 votes after a recount and court ruling."

Isn't this supposed to be up to the voters. Talk about acceptance of corruption.

And, have they admitted how many bodies were found after the storm yet. I hope they count bodies better than they count votes.