Jeb Inc.

When Jeb Bush visited Kingston, Jamaica, last July, his hosts pulled out all the stops. They brought in a military band, threw a lavish reception at the home of the island's governor general and paid $60,000 for him to give a speech. The theme of the speech? Entrepreneurial capitalism.

Bush is becoming quite an expert on that. In the 18 months since leaving the Florida Governor's Mansion, he has quietly remade himself into a capitalist-entrepreneur extraordinaire.

Capitalizing on his eight years as governor and a network of Bush family supporters, he leads a busy, and lucrative, life: global speaking engagements, a new consulting firm and affiliations with three big businesses. He earns hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and stock and has joined the ranks of private equity executives on Wall Street. And he keeps his hand in politics through five nonprofit organizations that help maintain his profile, champion his favorite causes and keep people wondering: Will Jeb Bush seek public office again? Story here.

An interactive look at his recent business dealings is here.

Comments

And just think, he did all this off the backs of the people. His use of Floridians tax dollars got him far.

The guy makes me sick. Cashing in for filty lucre's sake. Ambitious? Of Course! He continues to have a huge interest in Romney; hoping to be his VP and worm his way back into being President. Reality to Jeb: Not Gonna Happen!!! Go Away! Like the dinosaurs, you had your chance and it is gone! Go do something to help the poor, or maybe even the disfunctionals in your own immediate family! You and your ilk are DONE!!

Remember in November!

[Take the Crack Pipe from Your Lips]

What a jerk! He takes a huge pay cut to be Governor, serves our state with tireless conviction for eight years, then is the only Governor to ever voluntarily give up his state pension because he thinks the money can be better spent helping needy Floridians!

I'm sure all the whiners on this blog item have sacrificed far more for our state.

Jeb Bush is a great man and did a lot for Florida. You would never see him taking a 12 day European vacation on state tax dollars. Trade mission - sure...

[Bush s**ks]

Jeb will never hold public office again...unless he changes his last name from Bush.

To much bad karma associated with the name "Bush".

[BUSH SUCKS AND BLOWS!]

Hey Bush s**ks, did you know that you can say "sucks" on this blog without alerting the censor? (I think he must understand just how we feel.) Go ahead, speak your mind! BUSH SUCKS! JEB SUCKS! It's small consolation for the ruination of our state and out county. But go for it! Please let Jeb know in the strongest terms that we don't want to ever see another BUSH in office.

[Jason Straight]

Jeb did as much to destroy florida as his idiot brother did to destroy america..No child left our state 49th in education,the prisons have the highest per capita population in the US ,taxes and insurance were permitted to skyrocked without his intervention,citizens lost legal rights to large companies like Tenet one of americas Medicare cheaters,on and on .He is reapin the benefits of the riches he sent to Corporate america thru privitzing 25% of State services to his friends.

[The Inconvenient Truth]

Jason, get your facts right. By any objective measure, education improved under Jeb after it had succumed to union-driven mediocrity for years under Democrat governors. Jeb lowered taxes at the state level. Local governments raised taxes, and Jeb had no control over it. Prison populations increased in size because Jeb actually made criminals serve their full sentences.

You can hate him if you want. But if you have to lie to justify your hatred, we have to question the real motivation behind your lies.

I'm guessing idiocy.

Bush's political future is wide open. He could beat Bill Nelson and be a US Senator whenever he wants, and then could run for President. I'm a dem, and I would vote for Jeb over Bill any day.

Thanks Jeb for
-higher property taxes
-no control of local government spending
-overpaid public safety officials
-higher insurance premiums

Thanks Jeb for making Florida an unattractive place to live

[BO's Dresser]

Jason,

Did you ever visit that Obama Clothing site I gave you?

You sound like a guy who would be right at home with the styles they sell. You have sure bought the Obama political BS hook line and sinker.

Of course there is a sucker born every minute. Just be careful what you suck on.

Great grandpa Walker was a partner of J.P. Morgan, great grandpa Bush was a partner of Rockefeller, grandpa Preston was Averill Harriman's partner, daddy colonized the Texas oil patch for New York investment banks. Brother George is dumb but lucky. Jeb is a mean b@$tard whose self-certainty and sense of entitlement are so vast that only good fortune can save the state and nation from further harm at his hands.

Check out Jeb's Brother, the traitor, defending his decision to sit down with our enemies the Chinese:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/06/g8.summit/index.html

I'm sure he's going to us the opportunity for some "tough negotiations:

Um...Mr. Jintao sir... I was wondering... Can we have the Clinton budget surpluses back? Oh, absolutely... I have no problem looking the other way when it comes to Tibet. No, we're not going to sign Kyoto... I know how much you need that excuse to keep on polluting. And no, your currency is just fine with me and the boys, he he he.

[Crusader]

Born on home plate, thinks he hit a homer.

The question I like to ask: If Jeb wasn't to the manor born, what would be doing now?

Own a couple of dry cleaning stores? Marry into money?

Heck, his kids would probably have had to attend public schools.

it it is FOR SALE -- anything or anybody -- jebba will SELL IT!!

REMEMBER that any time anyone with that last name or connection to that vilewhoremongering family runs for public office!!!!

[period]

10:26:

Your intelligence is inversely proportional to the number of exclamation points you use to end your profoundly moronic sentences. You can't make up for being stupid by being emphatic.

it is bad for the country that jeb was not president instead of his brother.

[InTheirBoots]

Jeb and his stupid brother should be made to watch this Video of maimed Veterans caused by Bushs War for Oil.

http://intheirboots.com/?track=imagine%20a%20world

[Hank Porter]

Just to be clear, if you'd vote for Jeb Bush over Bill Nelson for US Senate, then you're not a Democrat. You may not be a Republican either, but you're not a Democrat.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the newspaper industry is in decline.

The St. Petersburg Times missed an opportunity to write a truly interesting story about Jeb Bush and instead wasted 2,200+ words telling us what we already know: if you are intelligent, work hard, and are succesful in public office, it will not be difficult for you to make some money once you leave office.

There is nothing interesting, or clever, or particularly journalistic about an article that attempts to hint and allege through conjecture and innuendo. This is lazy and agenda-driven reporting.

[Jason Straight]

Balony ,I have very personal knowledge of the crooked RE Deals Bush did with the RTC on Brickell Ave wit Codina in Miami were he was handed millions w/o bid..If that deal was earned Ill give $500 to the Mc Cain campaign..This hard work is the payoff for privatizing Floridas govt and looking the other way as taxes skyrocketed..Listen these guys are getting payback.Did anyone ever give you a piece of a baseball team??.So much for hard work.

jeb and his family are utter garbage, as are the moronic partisans who support them uncritically. i used to ignore evangelicalism. now i actively loathe and despise it and the hypocrites who blindly follow it.

Before you start criticizing a guy who is making his money out of office, check what Senator Harry Reid is doing while he is in office.

He needs to get a spokesperson who knows how to deal with the press. Caling legitimate questions about the business dealings of the immediate former governor of this state offensive and voyeristic is ridiculous. A big problem Republicans have is that very few of them understand how to deal with the media.

[American Exceptionalism No more]

The only small business now left in the US is garage sales, flea markets, and pizza shops. Pretty soon the dollar will be worth less then toilet paper and then we can wipe our a*$ with it and flush it down the toilet.

Thanks for nothing Mr. Bush and Mr. Bush.

The whole family has capitalized on name ID and connections to make themselves very very wealthy. Unfortunately the rest of have paid, some with their lives, and are still paying, to see the Peter Principle in play all the way to Washington.

[Jason Straight]

Thank God they are finally gone I hope Florida can survive the FGOP right wing policies..This state have more registered Dems the Republiks..The state legislature is so Gerrymandered the control 70% of the house ..Nothing will change as long as they are comfortable they can control their districting..Some daythe voters will get a fair deal maybe after the Depression wakes the voters up next year ..

[McTruth]

Remember what the BUSH brothers campaigns were about: Blood for oil! Old Jebba can't stay out of the spotlight, but it looks like Dumbya and PIG Cheney and the rest of the RePIGLican Thugs will be McOut on their collective McButts by January. Oink. PIGS. REPIGLICANS. Oink. McPig. McSame. McShame. McTerrible. McSAME! McOink. PIGS!!!!!

[For Law]

Governor Bush left a lucrative career in the private sector to serve the people of Florida. He did not need office to enhance his stature, his wealth or his ego. He fully disclosed the extent of his wealth in office, all placed in a blind trust for his entire term. While in office, he pursued fiscally conservative policies, accountability and audacious plans, despite what public opinion held. He returned to the private sector, rather than seek further political office. He refused to take either a pension or unpaid leave, even though he worked far many more hours than the mandated state requirement. He is now a private citizen. Why can you people not respect that?

Below is a truthful reminder of what this great governor did for the state of Florida.

Gov. Bush honorably denied receiving a pension he earned and deserved more than any governor of FL.

Compare this solid record and leading the state of Florida to an administration on auto-pilot, bankrupt of big ideas as well as moral convictions.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/293ppytu.asp

GOVERNOR IN CHIEF

Jeb Bush's remarkable eight years of achievement in Florida.

by Fred Barnes

06/12/2006, Volume 011, Issue 37

Tallahassee

IF ONLY HIS LAST NAME WERE SMITH. He'd not only attract national attention as the popular and successful governor of a difficult-to-govern state. He'd be viewed sympathetically as a leader who had dealt with family issues--his wife's aversion to politics, his daughter's bouts with drug addiction--without losing his grip on the governorship. And he'd be the prohibitive frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

But his last name is Bush.

So Jeb Bush, nearing the end of his eight years as governor of Florida, has to settle for being *THE BEST GOVERNOR in America. *

Not proclaimed the best governor by the media and the political community.

But recognized as the best by a smaller group: governors who served with him and experts and think-tank and conservative policy wonks who regard state government as something other than a machine for taxing and spending.

Why is Jeb Bush the best?

It's very simple.

His record is the best. No other governor, Republican or Democrat, comes close.

Donna Arduin, perhaps the most respected state budget expert in the country, has worked for four big-state Republican governors--John Engler of Michigan, George Pataki of New York, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and Bush. Even while she worked for Schwarzenegger, she told me Bush is "absolutely" the nation's premier governor. "He's principled, brilliant, willing to ignore his pollsters, and say no to his friends," she says.

Engler, now head of the National Association of Manufacturers, knows Jeb Bush well and has watched the course of his governorship. He says flatly:

"Jeb Bush is the finest governor in the country." Jim Gilmore, the ex-governor of Virginia, declines to rank governors. But he says Bush, as governor of a big state, "had a big challenge and he met it."

In a state with a surging population, Bush has presided over a booming economy with the highest rate of job creation in the country and an unemployment rate of 3.0 percent (the national average is 4.6 percent). Florida has no state income tax, but Bush has nonetheless found a way to cut taxes every year of the eight he's been in office. Meanwhile, he's trimmed the state employment rolls by 11,000.

"Politics is a game for risk takers," says Mike Murphy, a political strategist for Bush and other governors, including Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Schwarzenegger. And Bush is an extraordinary risk taker and innovator. He's made Florida, in the jargon of bipartisan experts, a "laboratory of democracy." He's mined state and local think tanks for ideas that might streamline state government and make it more effective.

He's the first governor to impose stringent testing and accountability on Florida elementary and secondary schools, along with three voucher programs, the most ambitious of which was struck down this year by the (liberal and majority Democratic) state supreme court. This achievement went beyond the No Child Left Behind program of his brother, President Bush, who dropped vouchers in a compromise with Democrats in 2001.

On health care, no governor has attacked Medicaid, whose costs are swamping state budgets, more boldly than Bush. He wangled a breathtakingly broad waiver from the federal Department of Health and Human Services to privatize Medicaid in two populous counties, Duval (Jacksonville) and Broward (Fort Lauderdale). The new program, affecting more than 200,000 Medicaid recipients, goes into effect July 1.

CONTINUED
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[Jason Straight]

The author Fred Barnes is a Neocon Bushie we see every week on Faux news..He found that there are WeaPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION BETWEEN HIS EARS ..Nice try!!

[BO's Dresser]

Jason,

When are you going to visit our Obama gay clothing web site? We are waiting for you to come on and place your order. We have some very nice jackets you might be interested in seeing. However, they are "straight".

Forget beating Bill Nelson. Jeb could be Governor again. Florida will be lucky if he is willing.

He sucks!

Reading this made me so sick, I just threw up in my mouth.

Jeb! Again in '10

7:24 is right

For precedent one need look no further than the American hero responsible for the impassioned words

"Give me liberty or give me death"

Governor Patrick Henry

The first governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry served five exhausting terms.

In 1794, he retired and resumed private legal practice. “Failing health forced him to refuse numerous posts, including Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Secretary of State and minister to Spain and to France. He even turned down a sixth term as governor.

http://www.electricscotland.com/HISTORY/america/patrick_henry.htm

[terminator]

3:08
If Jeb Bush was such a great governor, how come Florida's in the sh*tter now?

While Chuck Crist didn't put us there he is devoid of any idea as to how to get us out.

For law:
good old Jebster sure didn't waste anytime once he got out of office did he?

Disgusting little yuppie.

Jeb you're a disgusting little yuppie.

For once termie has the right idea. If Florida really had been all that great, Charlie could not have wreaked this much destruction in just a year.
So he gave up his pension. Anyone who can get the board seats that pay like his do doesn't need any stinking state money.

I have never seen such hatred as comes from Democrats these days. You are truly pathetic little boys.

i really hate this man. one word -- shmuck

if it is FOR SALE -- anything or anybody -- jebba will SELL IT!!

REMEMBER that any time anyone with that last name or connection to that vilewhoremongering family runs for public office!!!!

The words of true relevance are: "Capitalizing on his eight years as governor and a network of Bush family supporters..."

[Annie]

I have seen firsthand how the nonprofits that Jeb Bush raises money for have helped families who are in need. Whatever people say about him, the truth is, he has helped many families in Florida learn to read together. I have witnessed him sincerely care about getting funds to programs that provide direct service to the most needy in Florida.