Jeb Bush's Mike Brown? (Jeb had a high school dropout recommending judges)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051013/LOCAL/51013025/1078/news


Ex-DOC official under investigation
By JOE FOLLICK and KAREN VOYLES
Sun staff writers
October 13. 2005 9:47AM

TALLAHASSEE - Long before he became the center of an ongoing investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, former Department of Corrections official Allen Clark was well-known to politicians as a go-to contact for campaigns.

<snip>

Bush didn't provide specifics on his associations with Clark, saying he was ''one of literally thousands of people that have helped me get elected.''

Bush said he couldn't remember how many times he'd met Clark, nor could he remember who suggested that Bush appoint Clark to the 8th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission. That group reviews judge applicants in part of North Florida and submits suggestions to Bush for final approval.

Bush appointed Clark to the Judicial Nominating Commission last year, despite the fact that Clark was a high school dropout with no legal background. Clark resigned from the commission on Sept. 7. Bush said Tuesday that before appointing Clark to the Judicial Nominating Commission, he was not aware of DOC investigations in 1999 that found Clark had misused inmate labor and employees club funds, nor was Bush aware of a 1994 suspension Clark received for beating inmates.

<snip>

[Skwmom]

1. I believe there was an ex-playmate that Jeb appointed to

a state job (100,000K+ salary) that so outraged some individuals they quit in protest. It was rumored that Jeb and the ex-playmate had a very close relationship.

[warrens]

7. That would be Cynthia Henderson

She appears to have faded away, but not before she took one more bite from the apple.

Ever since she appeared in the state Capitol four years ago, Cynthia Henderson has been a lightning rod for trouble. After heading two state agencies amid buckets of controversy, Henderson left the government payroll in January to lobby.

It didn't take long for trouble to follow.

Earlier this week, some lobbyists started complaining that Henderson was illegally lobbying a division of her old state agency on behalf of ACS, a computer company. The issue was a technology contract that could be worth about $150-million. Florida law bans agency heads from lobbying or representing a paying client before their former agency for two years after they leave. She has barely been gone two months.

On Thursday afternoon, the folks who handle the registration of all lobbyists had no listing for Henderson representing ACS. So if she was lobbying, she could be in trouble twice: once for lobbying her former agency and the second time for lobbying without registering.

Shortly after noon on Thursday I called Henderson to check. Her office promised she'd get back to me. A couple of hours later a secretary called to refer questions to officials at ACS, insisting that Henderson was too busy to get back to me. The secretary did say Henderson was not lobbying for ACS, but refused to say exactly what she was doing.

ACS officials called shortly after 5 p.m. to say Henderson was handling their bid protest and had registered to lobby for ACS.

Henderson finally returned my call at 5:36 p.m.

"Why don't people leave me alone?" she asked.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/15/Columns/Bureaucrat_or_lobbyis.shtml

[warrens]

8. And here's the not-so-happy couple

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1331000/1331660.stm&h=190&w=150&sz=8&tbnid=cQixVaQsbCgJ:&tbnh=97&tbnw=76&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCynthia%2BHenderson,%2BJeb%2BBush%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

[highplainsdem]

9. Thanks for the background and links!

[goclark]

2. Barbara and Poppy ~ parents of the year! nt

[dalloway]

3. good catch. This needs some sunshine. Recommended

[sasquatch]

4. Nominated

Jesus, is he trying to top his brother in stupidity?
:shrug:

[elehhhhna]

5. Nom'd. The guy's a crook & Management perpetuates itsself.

[rzemanfl]

6. Bush also appointed Jerry Rieger to head the much-maligned

Department of Children and Families. It then came out that Rieger's name was attached to a publication that said women should not work and it was okay to beat children. Rieger turned out to be a typical Repuke crook, fond of freebies and cronyism, he is now gone.