Presidential Children - Like Our Esteemed Governor - Have Had It Tough - It's difficult to be the son af a president. You probably didn't know that "presidential children face[ ] higher than average rates of divorce and alcoholism, even premature death". And it must be doubly difficult when a presidential child, like Florida's Governor, is also a presidential sibling.
Oh the pressure on poor "Jeb!", we can't imagine how he manages to make it through the day.
And This Probably Doesn't Help - "Hundreds of members of AARP rallied at the state Capitol . . . to urge lawmakers not to put a cap on medical malpractice jury awards." Bush and Jennings of course think caps are a great idea and are barnstorming the state to build support for the limit on jury awards. AARP Florida claims to have more than 2.5 million members.
Florida Times Union Loses Touch With Reality - It's always a lot of fun to read the Florida Times Union editorial page (we usually save it for last); the editors (or owners, or Fla GOP operative) or whoever actually writes the editorials can be counted on to, well, march with "Gov. Jeb Bush And His Amen Chorus Of Goose-Stepping Legislators" Recently, however, the paper seems to have lost it; perhaps with total GOP control of Tallahassee, and the abject incompetence on display there every day (Jax's Jim King excluded), the writers are frustrated. This frustration took root in today's edition, with an comical editorial blasting the (powerless) Democrats for wasting legislative time. See "Legislature: Thumb-twiddling".
ERA Issue Splitting Florida GOP - "The modern-day [ERA] movement seems to be dividing the state's Republican Party, which will rely on the votes of moderate women next year in the campaign to secure Florida's 27 electoral votes for President Bush's reelection." See "Senate's 'retro' action revives the ERA"
Tallahassee's Resident Neanderthals Speak To The ERA Issue - "In the House, the [ERA] issue got a decidedly cool reaction from Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, who said the ERA isn't among his priorities, and the women in his family don't think it's needed. 'I've polled all the women in my life," Byrd said, mentioning his wife and three daughters, including a 22-year-old Naval Academy graduate who is in flight-school training at Pensacola Naval Air Station. 'They all said they didn't want to be victims this week. They feel like they're doing just fine [without it].'" (Yeah, like Byrd's daughter would have gone to the Naval Academy if Phyllis Schafley had had her way).
"Gov. Jeb Bush has also said he doesn't think the ERA is needed. Only recently he told reporters, 'My personal opinion is that it's kind of like a retro subject, like going back and wearing bell-bottoms.'" See "Senators revive equality fight".
Like we mentioned the other day, somebody needs to tell Bush that kids today are "going back and wearing bell-bottoms". Indeed, "Bell-bottoms . . .are everywhere."
GOP Goes After Critics - In "Plan would merge watchdog groups", we learn that "unlike a plan proposed by Gov. Jeb Bush, there will be no drastic budget cuts for the Office of the Auditor General or the Office of Program Policy and Government Accountability under the legislative proposal. The plan by lawmakers would merge them into the Office of Government Accountability." The Governor's proposed "drastic budget cuts" will probably reappear budget bill at the end of the session.
Dems Not Permitted To Debate Regier Appointment - "Department of Children & Families Secretary Jerry Regier was confirmed, 8-2, by the Senate's Children & Families committee after some Democrats questioned whether he could handle the embattled agency. But they were not allowed to debate the issue after committee chairwoman Sen. Evelyn Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican, declared it was time for a vote." See "Regier gets past first Senate test". There's also a piece in the Orlando Sentinel about Regier supposedly being "grilled" by Dems at the hearing.
The Malpractice Debate - Howard Troxler argues that "Florida's doctors are right." But "Florida's lawyers are right, too." See "Suffering the pains of malpractice insurance". The St Pete Times editorializes that "Doctors' focus on an inadequate $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages is diverting attention from serious reforms of malpractice insurance."