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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Thursday, June 09, 2005

"Jeb!": "No money ever changed hands"

    Another "Jeb!" scandal that will go nowhere fast:
    The ranking Democrat, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, said the Interior Department seemed to be trying to deliver a public relations coup to the Bush brothers. Gov. Bush was running for re-election at the time. "I think their strong political influence biased this transaction against the public interest," he said.
    "Report questions offer to protect Everglades".
    The inspector general of the Department of the Interior said Wednesday that a wealthy Florida family bluffed and pressured the government into paying an inflated $120 million for mineral rights in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

    A memo to Secretary Gale Norton accompanying a report by department investigators said federal officials justified the price through an "illicit process" that "cries out for accountability."

    When an anonymous tipster sparked the inquiry in 2003, the deal to prevent oil and gas drilling near the Everglades was scrapped. The agreement for the sale had been announced at the White House in May 2002 with Gov. Jeb Bush in attendance and much hoopla.

    The deal with Naples-based Collier Resources Co., unveiled at the same time as a buyback of offshore oil leases near the Panhandle, was credited with helping burnish the governor's and the president's environmental credentials.
    "Collier deal blasted by Interior official". And "Jeb!"'s response:
    And Gov. Bush called any suggestion that any deal with the Colliers was political or politically timed "ridiculous." He refused to comment on the report and emphasized that no money ever changed hands. "I'm not going to report on an IG report that I haven't read from a level of government that I don't control or be involved in," he said. "I can't tell you what the value is. I do make a point of making sure the taxpayers get their fair share when we buy land. That's my job, and I'm cantankerous about it."
    "U.S. mineral-rights offer called ripoff". The report is available here.

8:09 AM

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