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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 Tuesday, June 28, 2005

"Jeb!"'s Spoils System Intact

    The Legislature's lame attempt to slow down "Jeb!"'s privatization disaster went down in flames:
    With one stroke of his veto pen Monday, Gov. Jeb Bush muscled out lawmakers who had mounted a unified campaign to exercise more control over how he hands out high-priced contracts for state government work.

    Saying that the Legislature went too far and threatened the balance of powers, Bush vetoed three bills designed to impose new controls over the governor's push to privatize state government.

    The bills would have created a panel that would have reviewed all contracts over $1 million, reduced the governor's office's role in managing state technology contracts and given the Legislature authority over preparing a long-term budget plan.

    The veto highlighted the strongest policy contrast between the Republican-led Legislature and the Republican governor in Bush's six-year term, as lawmakers become increasingly uncomfortable with the executive branch's eagerness to hand over state business to the private sector without sufficient checks in place.
    "Bush vetoes tighter contract oversight". See also "Governor vetoes oversight bills", "Bush vetoes contracting oversight bill" and "Efficiency bills get Bush veto".

    We know what this really is about now, don't we? "Jeb!"'s privatization schemes are about "Victors and Spoils"; as Paul Krugman put it in the New York Times:
    Jeb Bush has already blazed the [spoils system ] trail. Florida's governor has been an aggressive privatizer, and as The Miami Herald put it after a careful study of state records, "his bold experiment has been a success" at least for him and the Republican Party, records show. The policy has spawned a network of contractors who have given him, other Republican politicians and the Florida G.O.P. millions of dollars in campaign donations."
    "Jeb!" and his cronies are cutting up and selling off Florida government in return for political contributions.

7:26 AM

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