JEB'S FLORIDA GOVERNMENT ALMOST AS SCREWED UP AS GEORGE'S IN D.C.-- STATE GOP IN SHAMBLES

Still not fully recovered from the smack-down he got from Fidel last year, Jeb Bush just stepped into another enormous pile of wet dog poop this week. The Florida Politics blog has the details but, in short, it looks like Jeb is determined to leave a wrecked Florida GOP and a truly pitiful legacy in his wake (8 months to go). The U.S. Senate race is a complete mess, with Jeb supporting/not supporting/maybe supporting Katherine Harris' pathetic, hysterical and doomed bid to take on conservative Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. And now the GOP is seriously fractured along ideological lines inside the State Legislature.

In 2002 Florida voters approved an initiative to limit class size. Bush has been trying to over-turn that ever since. It makes public schools more attractive, something that the far right finds galling and counter-productive. The State Senate told him "no" and decided to stick with the voters this time. Even worse, for Bush, the Senate shocked him with another defeat for his crazy voucher plans. In his mad, headlong rush to fulfill the radical right's wish to destroy public education, Bush is determined to make his voucher program work (as well as to over-turn the classroom size limits). Tuesday and Wednesday were fireworks days in the State Senate as 4 old-line conservative Republicans broke with the neo-fascist majority and joined the Democrats to defeat Bush's latest voucher proposal (one that is supposedly constitutional this time).

Both proposals were wrecked by Senate Majority Leader Alex Villalobos (+ 3 Republican allies) who turned on Bush and the extremist right. Villalobos was immediately fired as Majority Leader of course but not before he got in some effective licks. He told the MIAMI HERALD "My legacy, whatever it is, was not going to be that I helped bring down public education in the state of Florida. And if I have to lose my position in the Senate because of that, then that's fine. And if I don't get to come back as a senator, then that's fine, too. I will not sell my soul or sell my vote."


Bush went on a frightening 2-day eating binge-- his worst since Fidel called attention to his chronic weight problems just before Christmas-- and then accused Villalobos, the husband of a public school teacher, of callous insincerity. "This wasn't a vote about school choice. Trust me," he bitched between inhaling a dozen glazed donuts. "It was about people's feelings being hurt, it was about personal pride, it's about a dysfunctional Republican caucus. That's what it's about." Nice; have another dozen, fatty. (As well as trying to get Bense to challenge Harris
in the Senate primary, Jeb is now offering financial support to anyone who will take on the popular
Villalobos. Looks like the Republican senate caucus isn't the only part of the Florida GOP that's dysfunctional. In fact, if you missed it earlier this week, be sure to check out the nice ad Republican/neo-fascist CFO Tom Gallagher claims he has nothing to do with for his gubernatorial Republican rival Attorney General Charlie Crist who is portrayed as a liberal and a homo.