Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush being introduced at World Affairs Council of Philadelphia in 2012
Former Florida Governor John E. “Jeb” Bush has not even officially announced that he is running for President yet, but already Bush finds himself under attack. Among the early attacks against Bush are:
- Allegations about toxic waste dumping involving Bush, current Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Koch Brothers.
- Reminders that Bush signed the nation’s first so-called “Stand Your Ground” a/k/a “Shoot First” law, promoted by ALEC and the NRA, that has resulted in a number of tragedies and the unequal application of justice.
- Democratic attempts to define Bush as another Willard Mitt Romney, e.g., as being in favor of tax cuts for the rich, formerly involved in the financial industry and opposed to the rescue of the U.S. auto industry. Such early Democratic defining of Romney as an elite, out-of-touch Mr. Moneybags, followed by actions and statements by Romney, his wife and staffers, fed the narrative that Democrats had created and perhaps fatally wounded Romney.
- Yesterday, Bush’s newly hired Chief Technology Officer Ethan Czahor, scrambled to delete offensive tweets, including some in which Czahor called girls and young women “sluts” and others in which Czahor ridicules gay men.
UPDATE 2/10/15 11:33 a.m. PT: Bush has a new problem on his hands, involving online privacy. He just released thousands of emails from his time as Florida Governor, but the emails contained the email addresses, mailing addresses, telephone numbers and even social security numbers of the constituents who contacted him, without redacting this sensitive information. Perhaps the person responsible for this website fail was too busy cleaning up his own online messes (see above).
UPDATE 2 2/10/15 6:20 p.m. PT: Ethan Czahor has just resigned. Anybody feeling that temperature rise yet?
Moreover, Bush is being criticized by Republicans as well. For example, Rand Paul recently slammed Bush for “hypocrisy” regarding Bush’s opposition to medical marijuana after it was reported that Bush was a heavy pot smoker in his youth. Even Bush’s own mother has said that Jeb should not run for President, and that “we’ve had enough Bushes.”
These mounting attacks on Jeb Bush remind us that it’s easy to criticize an incumbent President or to sit on the sidelines and attack political office holders, but it’s quite a different thing to subject oneself to the intense scrutiny of a Presidential campaign. Jeb Bush may now find that, the closer he gets to being an official Republican candidate for President, the hotter the campaign kitchen will get.
Photo by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, used under Creative Commons license. http://is.gd/uSkSaP
