But his problem is deeper than policy.

Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education has collected millions of dollars from pro-Common Core organizations — from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the for-profit education giant Pearson — giving critics something to sink into and drawing attention to the venture that has allowed the former Republican governor to expand his profile beyond Florida.

The ties fuel detractors who assert the standards are being pushed by big business interests, such as the company whose CEO sits on the Bush foundation board.

Some of the same foundation supporters under scrutiny then have an interest in Common Core, including Pearson, the world's largest education company, and Amplify, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Amplify's CEO, former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, sits on the Bush foundation board.

Last month, Pearson landed a lucrative contract with a consortium developing tests aligned with Common Core. Amplify last year won a $12.5 million contract from another Common Core consortium. It also has developed a tablet that comes with Common Core-aligned material.

The potential market for all the new materials required by Common Core is as much as $8 billion, according to the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which supports the standards and has provided financial backing to Bush's foundation.

Other foundation backers with an interest in Common Core include publishers McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Microsoft, another foundation sponsor, in March announced a partnership with Pearson to develop Common Core material.

"Light vetoes predicted"

"Light vetoes predicted when Gov. Rick Scott signs Florida budget".

"A conspiracy of unseemly coincidences"

Fred Grimm: "Trade secrets. Private information. Privileged stuff about the inner workings of a basic democratic function. In other words, not for the likes of you."

Neither the public nor the press can see 538 pages of emails, maps and planning documents generated by one of the high-powered political operatives who actually run this state.

The Florida Supreme Court decided Tuesday that the trove of material from Republican political consultant Pat Bainter in connection with the 2012 congressional redistricting maps must remain top secret. Bainter’s stuff can only be revealed in a closed courtroom. As if this were a matter of homeland security.

Wasn’t it odd that the final districts map was so markedly similar to a map submitted by an FSU student? His map, in turn, was identical to another created by Frank Terraferma, director of campaign strategies for the GOP members of the Florida House of Representatives.

Of course, the legislative leadership would never, ever consider a map submitted directly from a political strategist. That would be wrong. . . .

The trial also elicited admissions that crucial email about redistricting exchanged among legislative leaders seems to have been erased. Senate President Don Gaetz insisted, not very convincingly, that he wasn’t the culprit. “I'm not sure I know how to delete emails.”

The trial also featured admissions of a secret meeting between Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford to approve the new districts. Gaetz explained that the meeting wasn't really secret. They just didn’t feel a need to alert that extraneous rabble known as the public.

Scott musta skipped the con law class about that silly "supremacy clause"

Scott Powers: "A two-month feud between the state, which has been turned away from inspecting VA hospitals, and the feds, who run the facilities, escalated Wednesday when Gov. Rick Scott said he is planning to sue for access."

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials have repeatedly advised Scott and Liz Dudek, secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, that states have no legal authority to inspect federal hospitals.

Yet Scott and Dudek have sent inspectors on unannounced visits seven times: first on April 3 at the veterans hospital in West Palm Beach and most recently on May 20 in Gainesville. Orlando's facilities have not been visited.

On Wednesday, Scott announced he wants to sue the VA in federal court "to establish AHCA's right to inspect and regulate health facilities in Florida." . . .

Some say Scott appears to be trying to make political hay, not law, from the latest scandal to rock the VA. Stetson University College of Law Associate Dean Michael Allen directs the Veterans Law Institute there and also teaches constitutional law. He said the governor's actions suggest a political motive, because the only way state inspectors could have jurisdiction at federal hospitals is if Congress authorizes it, and he does not know of any time that has happened.

One wonders if there is an lawyer out there who could in good faith argue Scott's position.

Meanwhile, we of course must have "balance" in the media: "Scott Maxwell: Rick Scott, Charlie Crist play politics with veterans."

Week in Review

Kevin Derby: "Political Bits and Pieces." See also "Week in Review for May 30, 2014," "Arrivals and Departures, May 30, 2014" and "The Week Ahead for May 27 to May 30, 2014."

Hollywood and the Hamptons

Jeff Henderson writes that "Crist’s support from Hollywood and the Hamptons rightfully raises questions of his populist support. So does Crist attacking Scott at a meeting of trial lawyers this week for using a helicopter to fly around the state before quickly backtracking and asking if any of the lawyers in the room would let him use their chopper." "'People's Gov.' Charlie Crist Relies on Hollywood and Hamptons for Campaign Cash".

"A not-ready-for-prime-time Charlie Crist"

Nancy Smith channels the Scott campaign war room, writing that "the Teflon is starting to peel off Charlie Crist like a cheap frying pan."

All of a sudden he isn't oozing charm on the big stage, getting away with empty good-guyisms, hail-fellow jokes and pie-in-the-sky promises. He's sweating.

This is something we're not used to. A not-ready-for-prime-time Charlie Crist.

Hot air

Aaron Deslatte: "Gov. Rick Scott has been taking heat over the past two weeks because he's repeatedly dodged questions from reporters about whether he believes the planet's average global increase in temperature is being caused by human activities."

But once in Florida's not-too-distant past, then Republican Gov. Charlie Crist – no scientist, either — championed the issue along with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a climate change summit in 2007. He blocked a coal-fired power plant during his first year in office and pushed for solar-power incentives. Then, he ran for the U.S. Senate, and began back-tracking from most of those positions.

While California was carrying out greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2020, Florida was weakening its growth-management act to allow for more sprawling, pollution-increasing land development in the hopes of kick-starting its economy.

Now, Democratic gubernatorial challenger Crist is back to being a sunshine lover. He talked glowingly about climate change reduction and tapping solar power at a Capitol rally last spring. His campaign logo pictures a sun rising developed by his wife, Carole.

Bondi claims same sex marriages "impose significant public harm"

"Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says in court documents that recognizing same sex marriages performed in other states would “impose significant public harm.”" "Bondi: Gay marriage would cause problems". More: "Fla. AG: Recognizing same-sex marriages harmful." A Bondi apologist explains "Furor toward Attorney General Pam Bondi over gay marriage court filing may be misplaced."

"Scott indifferent about importance of racial diversity among judges"

The Tampa Bay Times editors: "Gov. Rick Scott remains indifferent about the importance of racial diversity among judges, but the Florida Bar is not. Its new task force report puts the governor on notice that a decline in the portion of judges who are African-American is unacceptable and that it's his responsibility to bring more diversity to the bench. Scott has a significant opportunity this month when he can make up to 78 appointments to commissions that vet judicial candidates. The governor, who previously has played partisan politics in choosing commission members, needs to set a new course and make clear to his appointees to the Judicial Nominating Commissions that a diverse judiciary is in the interest of all Floridians."

Scott last year dismissed concerns from the black legislative caucus about the shrinking number of black judges, and at least some appointees to JNCs care little about submitting a diverse pool of nominees. A survey conducted for the task force found some JNC members hostile about educating lawyers on the judicial nominating process to broaden the applicant pool. "We don't want judges who can't even figure out how to apply on their own," wrote one. "Don't try to fix what ain't broke," wrote another. Such elitism has not gone unnoticed. In a survey of Bar members, more than three of every four said JNCs are built more on partisanship than merit.

Florida "climbed out of the recession because of factors beyond any one governor's control"

Politifact: "Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican Party of Florida are hanging their campaign hopes on a story that goes like this: When Charlie Crist was governor, unemployment skyrocketed and the economy nose-dived."

Crist is pushing back, saying the economic recovery started under him. He also argues that the jobs and economic picture in Florida isn't as rosy as Scott's portrayal.

Neither side is telling the whole story. The reality is Florida went into a recession because of factors beyond any one governor's control and climbed out of the recession because of factors beyond any one governor's control.

As the nation saw its unemployment rate improve, so did Florida. As of April, Florida's unemployment was a fraction of a percentage point better than the nationwide rate. . . .

Scott points to 540,000 new jobs since he took office — he arrives at that figure by getting rid of the public-sector job cuts and focusing on private-sector growth.

Kwame Donaldson, an economist at Moody's who analyzes Florida, previously told PolitiFact that the number of private-sector jobs during the time period that Scott has pointed to isn't a record and "is even less remarkable considering Florida's larger current population."

"Núñez emerges as effective lawmaker"

"By fighting to let undocumented immigrants pay in-state college tuition rates, Rep. Jeanette Núñez emerged as a breakout star of the 2014 legislative session." "In male-dominated Legislature, Jeanette Núñez emerges as effective lawmaker."

Remember 2012? That's the year when our Republican-dominated Legislature — helmed by Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford — set forth to scribbling and squiggling those aforementioned redistricting lines all over the state map.

This courtroom drama is still unfolding, but Weatherford and Gaetz have steadfastly denied any legislative wrongdoing in the map-drawing process — despite evidence that creates a much shadier perception, including: • Legislative staffers sharing internal data and maps-in-progress with political consultants before they were even made public to Florida voters. • An admission from the former chief of staff to then-House Speaker Dean Cannon that he personally shared those unfinished maps with an interested political consultant in order to "help a friend." • Deleted emails and documents that pertained to the redistricting process, and specifically, communications between state workers and outside political operatives with a potential interest in the outcome.

DWS not on the Medical MJ Bandwagon

Nancy Smith reports that "at least one marijuana legalization proponent fears the chairwoman of the National Democratic Committee, fast friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, could influence Hillary Clinton to maintain a hard line on the weed if she makes it all the way to the White House in 2016." "Debbie Wasserman Schultz Isn't on the Medical Marijuana Bandwagon".

"Younger members split with GOP"

Brendan Farrington writes about "a growing generational divide in the GOP as younger Republicans increasingly break rank from the establishment on social issues." "Younger members split with GOP over social issues".

The Myth of Jeb: An intellectual trapped in a politician's clothes. Really?

The "Myth of Jeb" is off and runnung in the national media:

As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush flew in Ivy League social scientists for daylong seminars with his staff and carved out time for immersive brainstorming sessions he called “think weeks.” A voracious reader, he maintains a queue of 25 volumes on his Kindle (George Gilder’s “Knowledge and Power” among them, he said) and routinely sends fan mail to his favorite authors. A self-described nerd, he is known to travel with policy journals and send all-hours inquiries to think tanks. (A sample Bush question: What are the top five ways to achieve 4 percent economic growth?)

Why is the media perpetuating the "Myth of Jeb" - that he is an intellectual trapped in a politician's clothes? Why the media is pushing this meme is anyone's guess, but there are are few fairly obvious answers, some of which are discussed here: "Not a Smart Man." See also "Jebbie Prepping for Preznit Run."

"Jeff Miller Eyes D.C. Leadership Ladder"

Jeff Henderson: "As the Obama administration tries to clean up the VA department, Jeff Miller has somewhat surprisingly emerged as one of the leading Republicans in Washington." "Jeff Miller Eyes D.C. Leadership Ladder Though Safely Seated in Florida".

ProtoBagger slams "low-information" Jeb critics

ProtoBagger Lloyd Brown argues that, should Jeb Bush run, his candidacy

should be welcomed by conservatives. Unfortunately, there are some who want to write him off because he supports the Common Core standards.

We have to parse that opposition. There are, again, low-information voters who believe Common Core places a new curriculum in the schools that instructs children Americans are racists and evil, and communism is superior to capitalism.

Common Core sets standards. Local schools boards set curriculum for the district.

Other opponents rightly see a danger in Common Core. They fear the federal government will seize control of it and impose the type of curriculum they fear.

A valid concern. But it was valid before Common Core and will be valid if Common Core is not adopted. The federal government will seize all the control it can from state and local governments and must be opposed at every step.

My take on it is this: I'd rather have a conservative like Jeb Bush, who would not allow the federal government to take control of local schools, as president than a big government proponent like Hillary Clinton.

He was a champion of standards, accountability and choice as governor, and I would expect him to be as president.

Thus, for rational voters, his name will not be a liability and his stance on education should be an asset.

Statewide, there have been $150.5 million in contributions, most of it to candidates, committees or state political parties. That is up nearly $9 million from a similar time frame during the 2010 cycle.

Political observers say a new law increasing the amount a donor can give to an individual candidate along with a big-money governor’s race is helping set the tone.

Statewide candidates can now accept $3,000 checks, while lower-level candidates can receive up to $1,000 contributions. Both caps were at $500 prior to new limits passed during the 2013 legislative session.

Taxpayer-funded hometown projects on chopping block

"The Florida Legislature used its best financial outlook in nearly a decade this spring to sprinkle in more taxpayer-funded hometown projects – more than $600 million requested by individual lawmakers during session. Now Gov. Rick Scott's office is poring over money lawmakers have tucked into their $77.1 billion budget for hometown projects, from a Brevard gun range and gay men’s chorus in Broward to a Panhandle ballet school and Miami observation tower." "Gov. Rick Scott's office poring over budget 'turkeys'".

Democrats push so-called "war on women," infuriating FlaGOPers

Anthony Man: "New Florida legislation making abortions more difficult to obtain could become a lynchpin issue in the Charlie Crist-Rick Scott race for governor."

Already, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and state Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, have joined forces in an attempt to use the proposed new abortion restrictions as a way to rejuvenate their party’s long-running charge that Republicans are engaged in a war on women.

And they’re aiming squarely at Scott, the Republican governor running for re-election.

“It’s clear that Florida Republicans want to follow the misguided leadership of Governor Scott and take their extremism a step further by restricting the right of Florida women to make their own health care decisions,” Wasserman Schultz said during a recent conference call with reporters.

Berman said the “real intent” of Scott-led Republicans is to “turn back the clock” and limit women’s ability to get access to abortions.

When Democrats push the so-called war on women, it infuriates establishment Republicans and social conservatives. “If you want to talk about a war on women, what about the war on women in the womb,” said Tami Donnally, a Lake Worth Republican activist.

"Election-year uncertainty"

"Florida soon will have a new agency to handle state government’s information technology, but a chief information officer may not come along till next year."

The reason? Floridians will vote for governor in November, and the head of the new Agency for State Technology is an executive-branch appointee.

Doug Robinson, executive director of the nonpartisan National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said Florida should expect to see a placeholder agency head at first.

Florida “would not be able to attract a highly qualified state CIO … until after the election,” Robinson said, explaining that top candidates don’t want to worry about being out of a job mere months after taking it.

Florida’s is the only state government without a CIO.

Should Gov. Rick Scott lose the election, “new governors have the full right to select their own leadership team, and the CIO is part of that leadership,” Robinson said.

"Small men with ugly thoughts"

Carl Hiaasen: "Small men with ugly thoughts, expressed aloud."

GOPer Staffer Cornered on Witness Stand

"An employee of the state Republican Party who drew congressional districts that appear to have been submitted to the Legislature under someone else's name took the stand in a redistricting trial Friday, as lawyers continued to battle over access to documents generated by political consultants."

Frank Terraferma, who became director of state House campaigns for the Republican Party of Florida in January 2011, began testifying late Friday as the trial's first week came to a close. Voting-rights organizations and some individual voters have challenged the state's congressional maps, saying they violate the anti-gerrymandering Fair District amendments approved by voters in 2010.

Terraferma did not send maps to lawmakers through the public system that the House and Senate's redistricting committees used to gather ideas.

"But you were willing to put your work product before the Legislature under somebody else's name," King said.

"I'm not aware that it was done until potentially right now," Terraferma said a moment later.

"Sitting here today in this courtroom, this is the first time you've ever realized that your work product was contained in public maps 132 and 133?" King asked.

"Yes," Terraferma replied.

Cue the laugh track.

Take an email from then-House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Give Me Liberty, Or A Check, to political consultant Marc Reichelderfer, in which he inquired "re the Senate's extra $10 million for redistricting, and the House's secret slush fund." Not quite a Federalist Papers moment.

Reichelderfer popped up again when the lobbyist and Cannon crony testified under oath that he had consulted with Republican legislative staffers and was privy to more than two dozen proposed redistricting maps that were supposed to be super secret, long before the public had a chance to review them. That's a big no-no.

The dubious claims by Gaetz and his Tallahassee Tonto that the redistricting effort was Simon Pure could be substantiated if Republicans and their operatives voluntarily released some 1,833 pages of internal documents relating to the process. That won't happen since the 1st District Court of Appeal illogically concluded the release of the documents would expose proprietary trade secrets. Poppycock.

Adding to the cloud hanging over the redistricting process is the testimony by Gaetz that secret meetings he conducted with Weatherford were entirely proper. Double poppycock.

Scott Appointees Implicated In Alleged Expressway Authority Scheme

"A handful of politicians, lobbyists and government officials plotted to take over Orlando's Expressway Authority and use the agency's $300 million budget to their advantage, according to records and testimony released by the State Attorney's Office."

The aim was to put their friends in charge of the agency, further their own careers and direct lucrative contracts to associates, say documents and the sworn statements by eight people associated with the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority.

Among those allegedly involved were agency board member Scott Batterson, an appointee of Gov. Rick Scott indicted on three bribery-related charges last month; former state Rep. Chris Dorworth, Batterson's friend since middle school and now a lobbyist; and state Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad, also a Scott appointee.

Prasad issued a statement through spokesman Dick Kane, saying, "Secretary Prasad has fully cooperated with State Attorney Jeff Ashton's investigation and has provided all the information requested."

"Key advisors"

Steve Bousquet: "Key advisers in Florida governor's race play vital roles".

Ricky, Marco and Jebbie may regret climate change remarks

"A California billionaire is going after millionaire Gov. Rick Scott over climate change, hoping to rally passive voters as Scott seeks re-election in November. . . . The effort has larger overtones given Sen. Marco Rubio's own doubts about man's contribution to climate change and Rubio's 2016 presidential aspirations. Former Gov. Jeb Bush, also looking at a 2016 run, has made similar comments." "Super PAC to use climate change issue against Gov. Rick Scott".

What's a FlaBagger to do?

"Record budget awaits Scott’s action."

"The costliest and meanest governor’s race in the nation"

Marc Caputo and Steve Bousquet: "Gov. Rick Scott is rewriting Florida’s campaign playbook by writing massive checks."

Charlie Crist, on his third political affiliation in four years, is doing his own rewrite through political reinvention.

Less than six months from Election Day, the two men are on a collision course in what promises to be the costliest and meanest governor’s race in the nation.

"Torment and torture and kill? We’re already there"

Fred Grimm writes that, "it's as if we're regressing back to medieval tenets for dealing with the mentally ill. Back to the dark ages when it was acceptable to torment and torture and kill those befuddled souls deemed to be lunatics. But no. We're not regressing. Torment and torture and kill? We’re already there." "Brutality against mentally ill inmates has become the norm."

Jennifer Carroll takes swipe at Scott

Radio talk-show host Seeta Begui "got widespread political buzz for her interview this month with former Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, in which Carroll took aim at her former boss, Gov. Rick Scott."

"It went pretty much viral," Begui said, including on the widely followed Huffington Post politically focused website.

In the interview, Carroll said she did not feel she received the support of the Scott administration and implied that her race and gender may have played a role.

The interview came as Scott is stepping up his re-election campaign. The front-running Democratic candidate for governor is former Gov. Charlie Crist, who was a Republican when he was governor.

"It's bad enough, particularly for a minority, when you are in the good-old-boy system. You're trying to walk that fine line, because, you know, there are little whispers that they give," Carroll said. "You know, if you go off too much, then you're known as a B-I-T-C-H. If you don't do enough, then you're a wimp."

Where's Marco?

No secret here: "National immigration reforms stalled again by partisan politics."

But even the Tampa Trib editors recognize that the immigration thing is damaging to their GOPer patrons, and so call upon "Florida’s entire congressional delegation [to] listen to the recent pleas by powerful conservative voices in Florida to end the partisan stalemate over immigration reform." "Editorial: No more delays on immigration reform."