The Man Who Would Be Mayor of Jax, Sounds Like A Member of the Pampered Bush Family - Ron Littlepage focuses on some interesting things about the GOP's candidate for Jax mayor, John Peyton:"Could it be that the picture of a rich boy living the good life at posh Ponte Vedra isn't the image the campaign wants to portray? . . . Can voters readily identify with a 38-year-old man who had been living in his daddy's homes until 1 1/2 years ago?" Peyton's father, Herb Peyton is the founder of Gate Petroleum, and the young Peyton (who would be mayor) scratched and clawed his way up to, you guessed it, vice president of Gate Petroleum. Peyton is what the Limbaughs of the world call an "achiever". Of course all this means nothing to Republicans: polls show Peyton will make it into a runoff with Nat Glover, a true self-made man.
Shades of Willie Horton - Jim King probably didn't appreciate seeing this in his hometown paper today: "Nearly 3,000 Florida prison inmates could be released early if a Senate proposal to cut the state prison budget by $44 million next year is enacted, Department of Corrections Secretary James Crosby said yesterday." See ": "Cuts could lead to inmates' release".
Gov. Bush and the War - Like any politician, but perhaps more than most, Gov. Bush has sought to benefit politically from the patriotism people feel about troops going off to war. Bush's reminding us that he is "commander in chief" of the Florida National Guard, and his planned trip to Gitmo to give a speech to the troops, represent clumsy but obvious attempts to tie himself to the war effort. It is of interest, however, that Gov. Bush, who was born in 1953, apparently obtained draft deferments to avoid Vietnam (his bios are unclear as to how, why or if he avoided military service in Vietnam, although he has been listed in the New Hampshire Gazette's infamous Chickenhawk Database). In any event, Bush's attempts to score political points might very well backfire: "Lance deHaven-Smith, a Florida State University political science professor, said the governor may have to shoulder some of the blame if the sputtering economy deteriorates because of the conflict, even though his brother is leading the coalition to oust Saddam Hussein." More.
A Right Winger Knows He's In Trouble When . . . even the Pensacola News Journal editorializes against one of his proposals.