Florida's Bush fatigue spreads

[seafan]

Friday, January 20, 2006

Florida's Bush fatigue spreads

By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

SARASOTA, Fla. -- It was a little more than five years ago that the shaky rise of George W. Bush to the presidency was achieved not by a popular mandate but through partisan voting shenanigans in Florida, a result ratified by a GOP-led U.S. Supreme Court.

The president's younger brother Jeb, governor of the state, played a leading role in stacking the deck, thus becoming the sudden favorite to carry on the Bush dynasty as the next Bush-surnamed president. But Bush fatigue is now a fixture in the Sunshine State, as it is in a lot of other places. Now nothing is as it seemed in the glory days after the 2000 election.

snip

Despite its conservative reputation, there is trouble in paradise. Harris now runs 23 percent behind Nelson, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey.

snip

As for Jeb Bush, 52, his recent days haven't been any happier than those of his embattled brother in the White House. The Florida Supreme Court killed his signature school voucher program as unconstitutional....

snip

...it is a huge political defeat for the governor, driven by GOP moderates who also blocked his efforts to allow government intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

snip

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/256353_means20.html

[rateyes]

1. Sounds like they are taking medication...

and getting over the disease that had them voting for Jeb:

Gonorrhea Lectim.

[mom cat]

5. I think that there might indeed be a cure for that dread disease.

Ain't Gonorrhea Lectim.:evilgrin:

[rateyes]

7. Only Republicans get that disease....

I think we need to quarantine them.:evilgrin:

[mom cat]

9. Maybe the National Guard could shoot the germs!

Isn't that what they plan to do with the bird flu!

[rateyes]

11. Works for me!! nt

[Warpy]

2. I'm in east central Florida right now

and I'm still seeing Stupid/Cheney 04 bumper stickers proudly displayed on shiny new SUVs. This is still a very right wing state, even though they're getting screwed here six ways from Sunday. I guess it's the feeling that those "other" people (feminists, blacks, gays) are getting screwed even worse than they are that's keeping them faithful.

I can't wait to get the hell out of Florida. I hate this state.

[ellenfl]

3. excuse me, but we are NOT a right wing state!

while it is true that i consider north florida part of the south, most of southern florida is transplanted northerners. miami-dade, broward and palm beach counties are definitely not right wing. furthermore, there is a nice blue spot in north central florida, specifically in gainesville.

it is my considered opinion that jebbie got elected the same way his brother did in the 2004 election. i think jeb's re-election was the practice session for the subsequent overthrow of the u.s. government by the bfee. just my opinion, mind you.

ellen fl

[yellowcanine]

10. Florida will eventually be a solid blue state imo, along with Texas,

North Carolina and Virginia. If the Dems can hang unto the upper Midwest they should have an electoral lock for the next generation.

[RagingInMiami]

12. Yes it was

2002 was the trial run for 2004, the first time Florida voted with computers.

[driver8]

4. I can't stand that m-fer, Jeb. He annoys me almost as much

as his dumb ass brother.

I would love to see Jeb run for president -- and watch him get buried being compared to his asshole brother.

[seafan]

6. "As the president goes, so goes he." (Yeah, boy.)

snip

The younger Bush says that he is not interested in running for president in 2008. As the president goes, so goes he. And the president is still laboring under the burdens of a bloody war in Iraq, a defeat on privatizing Social Security, a House Republican contingent scrambling to shake the aura of corruption, high energy prices, Majority Leader Tom DeLay's fall from power and the public outrage over covert eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants.

Honesty in government is emerging as the Democrats' centerpiece issue, but the GOP is struggling to get there first by sponsoring reforms previously rejected.



Critical mass is fast approaching.

[TheBaldyMan]

8. This is the best news in a long while

The people are beginning to stir and I fear the Bushbots have awakened a sleeping dragon.