Notes For Thursday, February 20, 2003

COMPANY HOLDING JOB OPEN FOR NOELLE BUSH IS IMPROPERLY AWARDED $7.5 MILLION CONTRACT. A multi-million dollar state contract to develop a web site was improperly awarded to the University of West Florida, and in turn, to a company called "Infinity Software Development Inc." The state auditor general - the office Bush now wants to merge out of existence - found that the university "'was awarded the project approximately two weeks before it submitted its proposal and approximately three months before it submitted its application packet.'"

Infinity - which will receive $7.5 million to develop the site, and presumably will receive all or most of the $1,5 million a year to keep the site running - has a special relationship to the John Ellis Bush family: "Tallahassee-based Infinity is holding open a job for Gov. Bush's daughter, Noelle, when she becomes available." How compassionate of them.

This ought to be a huge story. To date, it is merely a Palm Beach Post editorial. 5:58 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

WHAT IS IT WITH THESE MILLION DOLLAR WEB SITES? Feeding at the government trough has gone high tech. The editorial about the company holding a job open for Noelle Bush being improperly awarded a multimillion dollar state contract to develop and maintain a website reminded us of Johnnie Byrd's new web site: "myfloridahouse.com". How much is that going to cost, is the contract bing competitively bid, or is it a "no bid" award, and to which company is it being awarded? Perhaps the same company that is holding the job open for Noelle? Do we really need these web sites? How many others are there? Why do they cost so much? 5:50 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

MUST READ. We're sorry we missed this a couple of days ago: "Red ink blues - Bush: Can the governor's cutting-edge conservatism survive a budget crisis and his own divided party? " The St Pete Times editorial is not about the "budget" per se, but rather about how Florida "has become a national laboratory for conservative policy: steady tax cuts; sweeping new private school voucher programs; overhauled affirmative action programs; reduced civil service protections for state workers; thousands of state jobs privatized and slashed."

Bush is clearly an "extremist" (wack job Grover Norquist considers him a "model" governor) , but the media has made no serious effort to expose his radical right philosophy. The media apparently believes Bush is too "nice" a guy: "Bush is a true-believing conservative whose personality transcends efforts to paint him as an extremist," notes the editorial. 5:34 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

GOOD QUESTION. "Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said the governor needs to explain why the state should destroy a $100 million industry to save $4 million." Story. 5:02 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]