Florida's Bush fatigue spreads [View All]

[seafan]

Friday, January 20, 2006

Florida's Bush fatigue spreads

By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

SARASOTA, Fla. -- It was a little more than five years ago that the shaky rise of George W. Bush to the presidency was achieved not by a popular mandate but through partisan voting shenanigans in Florida, a result ratified by a GOP-led U.S. Supreme Court.

The president's younger brother Jeb, governor of the state, played a leading role in stacking the deck, thus becoming the sudden favorite to carry on the Bush dynasty as the next Bush-surnamed president. But Bush fatigue is now a fixture in the Sunshine State, as it is in a lot of other places. Now nothing is as it seemed in the glory days after the 2000 election.

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Despite its conservative reputation, there is trouble in paradise. Harris now runs 23 percent behind Nelson, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey.

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As for Jeb Bush, 52, his recent days haven't been any happier than those of his embattled brother in the White House. The Florida Supreme Court killed his signature school voucher program as unconstitutional....

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...it is a huge political defeat for the governor, driven by GOP moderates who also blocked his efforts to allow government intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/256353_means20.html