Notes For Sunday, February 02, 2003

BUSH NEEDS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS BUDGET. "Gov. Bush's budgets have been a shell game for four years, and he is running out of shells. Last year's Senate president, John McKay, said it would come to this. Gov. Bush didn't listen. Now he blames voters. Anyone but himself." Read the rest of this Palm Beach Post editorial. 7:13 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

FLORIDA'S SHAME. With Katherine Harris' removal of eligible black voters from the rolls in 2000 still in our minds, a Sun Sentinel article reminds us that "Florida has more than 400,000 ex-felons who are barred from voting -- the most of any state. It is one of only a dozen states that does not automatically restore civil rights to prisoners after they finish their sentences. . . . Critics call the Reconstruction-era approach unconstitutional and racist because it denies civil rights to people who have finished their sentences. About half of the ex-prisoners barred from voting are black."

"'In most parts of the country and most parts of the world, you serve out your time and get forgiven, and you can come back and get your life together,'" said Margaret Love, a former [Bush I] U.S. Justice Department official who just finished a study of voting policies of all 50 states for the American Bar Association. "But Florida apparently doesn't believe that, and I think it's very sad.'"

To its credit, the state is looking to add more employees to speed up the civil rights restoration process, but that sidesteps the underlying problem: the requirement of a civil rights restoration process in the first place. 6:58 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

BUSH BUDGET - REAL WORLD IMPACT. Florida Today reports that "[h]ousing assistance that helps low-income residents buy and lease homes as well as pay for local services faces an uncertain future under Gov. Jeb Bush's budget recommendations released last week. Officials from area municipalities, including Brevard County leaders, say Bush's proposed plan would endanger the homeownership of hundreds of residents currently on property tax rolls that fund local governments." Compassionate conservatism.
6:44 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

SUNDAY EDITORIALS. The Sunday papers include the following:

-"Capitol offenses" according to the St Pete Times.

- John Ellis Bush writes a letter to the editor.

- "Voters aren't the cause of Jeb's budget troubles".

- "Byrd's speaker phone". 6:35 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

THE BYRD - KING FEUD. This from the Florida Times Union. 6:29 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

ON GAMBLING , THE BUDGET AND POLITICIANS. Mark Silva's column today, Tallahassee poker: Politicians may be gambling with their future 6:25 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]