Jeb's legacy: Supreme Court deals blow to Bush puppetsBy Stephen Goldstein
September 14, 2008
South Florida Sun-Sentinel On Wednesday, Sept.3, I was deliriously happy — finally. What turned out to be "Sock It to Jeb Bush Day" came after nine long, frustrating, disillusioning years. I still can't believe what happened.
My long years of discontent began in September, 1999. Just months after Jeb became governor, I began writing op-ed columns for this newspaper. Immediately, I saw that he wasn't satisfied just being Florida's chief executive; he was a man on a messianic mission.
On the Christian equivalent of a hadj, he was hell-bent on imposing a religious agenda on our secular state and everyone in it. In part it was payback to the Religious Right that helped elect him; in part, it was because of his relatively recent conversion to Catholicism. In all, his drift was state-sponsored religion.
For his eight troubling years in office, I warned about how Jeb flouted the state Constitution, which unequivocally prohibited the use of state funds, directly or indirectly, for religious organizations or purposes. No matter, voters didn't care and his compliant Legislature approved his tax-funded voucher plan to divert money even to religious schools. He made being "faith-based" a litmus test for programs' being favored for state funds, even opened the first "faith-based" prison in the nation.
Year after year, I railed against Jeb's relentless pursuit of self-righteousness as he legislated from the governor's mansion. He appointed right-wing judges. He turned the Republican-dominated Legislature into lapdogs. For most of his eight usurping years in Tallahassee, whatever Jeb wanted, Jeb got — and then some. Floridians may have voted their representatives into office, but they went his way or the highway — except not always.
Finally in 2006, in a stinging rebuke of the governor, the Florida Supreme Court struck down one of his two pet voucher plans. Undaunted, he responded by saying that if his voucher was considered unconstitutional, he might try to amend the Constitution. So, before he left office, he stacked the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission with his stooges.
.....
The rest of the story: This past spring, this obscure Commission overstepped its bounds and slipped Jeb's two stealth amendments onto the November ballot, gutting the language in our state constitution that separates church and state, and opening the way for taxpayers to fund religious schools.
There was a tremendous outcry by the people, when learning of this subterfuge, planned and carried out by a vicious, vindictive ex-Governor who would not stop pushing his religious extremist views on Florida. Neither of these amendments contained the word "voucher", and Jeb thought he could get away with yet another of his 'devious plans'.
BUT, on September 3, the Florida Supreme Court, including the last of Jeb Bush's own appointees, unanimously rejected Jeb's two amendments from the November ballot, saying that they were deceptive to the voters.
Goldstein concludes:
Jeb has been quoted as saying that the Supreme Court's rulings are "extremely disappointing." Every Floridian should be quoted saying that they are "extremely disappointed" in him — and should thank God for term-limits and independent justices.
The thrill I felt when I heard how the Supreme Court socked it to Jeb has faded, because I know we can't be complacent. He and the radical right never give up, are plotting their strategy to sock it to the rest of us.
But, for this moment, justice against radical conservatism is sweet indeed.
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