One Bush isn't just the other's keeper

MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times
published July 20, 2002

Maybe Gov. Jeb Bush should tell his older brother, the president, to button his lip and forget about trying to make the stock market better.

After all, the president is not on the ballot this year and can afford to wait out the ups and downs of the market. The governor is on the ballot and subject to the ups and downs of everything.

All this brings me to suggest that it ain't all gravy, having a brother in the White House.

Oh, I suppose we'd all enjoy having a brother who is president, but a certain number of people assume that anything he does has some connection to his brother, the governor.

I don't know why, but some people seem to assume that a family relationship equals agreement on issues. Perhaps those people never had family members. I recall well the years my spouse was an editorial writer for the St. Petersburg Times.

Early in the morning as I read the paper, I would often challenge his words with something like, "How could you possibly write something this dumb?" Only to spend the rest of my day being accused of sharing his opinion because we were married.

The governor says he believes having a brother who is president helps.

"My brother is a great president and Floridians see that," Bush said in response to my questions this week. "He has been great to Florida and that is wonderful as well. More importantly to me personally, he is a great brother and role model."

It's clearly a good thing for the governor when his brother helps raise buckets of money for Florida Republicans. Or when the president decides to stop oil drilling off the coast of Florida.

And I suppose Floridians can take some solace in knowing that this governor gets his telephone calls returned when he calls the White House, but he also seems to get a fair amount of blame for things he cannot control.

"It cuts both ways," says former Republican Party chairman Tom Slade. "I think if you were going to pick, you'd pick having a brother who is president because it brings enormous assets. But you get a fair amount of credit or blame for stuff you didn't have anything to do with."

The level of hostility aimed at the Bush family is difficult to understand. Some compare it to the animosity that conservatives had for former President Bill Clinton, but it seems to be filled with much more bitterness.

I suspect having a brother who is president has made it harder to be governor. Our governor seems much more guarded, and almost anything that happens in Florida gets picked up on the national news.

It has also been harder on the governor's family. It's a great tragedy to have a child with a drug or alcohol problem, but even harder when the problems are played out on a national stage with booking photos on every television program.

Bush should get some credit for making his own disclosure this week when his daughter, Noelle, was jailed for violating the rules of a drug treatment program. He sent an e-mail announcing it to the capital press corps. It had to be tough, almost as tough as braving the national spotlight to go visit her in the Orange County Jail.

Have we ever had a governor visit a family member in jail?

Most political observers don't expect the current uproar in the market or Noelle's drug problems to do in the governor, particularly if former Attorney General Janet Reno wins the Democratic primary in September.

Some 48 percent of Floridians have a negative opinion of Reno, Slade notes.

"But the past week in the market hasn't done anybody in public office any good," Slade notes of the market's collapse. "It's not good news and it's really rocking Main Street."

Today, the governor arrives in London on a five-day trade mission, touting the goods and services available to Brits in Florida. Seems like a good time to get away.

The temperature in Tallahassee has climbed above 100 degrees every day this week, adding to the heat generated from the market and his daughter's trip to jail.

It's enough to make anyone want to go to London.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright