Dear Jeb: You can leave your hat on

MELONE E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 8, 2002

Short memo to Bill McBride:

Give up this business about how, if you're elected governor, you'll never say one thing in public and another in private, the way Gov. Bush did last Wednesday in a private meeting.

There isn't an officeholder taking in air who doesn't weigh and measure his public words and then lets his hair down at the end of the day when the door is closed. And there isn't a voter who fails to grasp this, so don't insult the public by suggesting otherwise. Go find something else to beat up on the governor with. It's not that hard.

Long memo to Jeb Bush:

Please, please, don't say you were just being sarcastic, as if you didn't mean what you said. The door was closed. You were among friends, some Republicans from Pensacola. You just missed the reporter with the tape recorder. You let your hair down.

First thing, before we get to the gay jokes: Why on earth were you talking about an ongoing criminal investigation when you ridiculed the two women who were taking care of that missing child, Rilya Wilson? The people from Pensacola had no need to know. Didn't you run the risk of hurting the investigation, in the name of spreading what you called the "juicy details" that these two women might be lovers?

You snickered that they don't have this sort of thing going on in Pensacola, the way they do in that Sodom to the south, Miami. You need to start thinking out of the box, Jeb. Why, these gay people -- they're everywhere. Next time you shake a hand on the campaign trail, you just might be shaking the hand of a gay person. You won't get the cooties from this contact, despite what you may think.

You could have talked like a statesman during that meeting. You chose instead to play the hack.

You know the amendment to reduce and cap class size in the schools will probably pass. It is going to pass because Florida parents are desperate, truly desperate, to protect and improve the education of our children.

You could honor the public will, but you chose to stomp all over it.

You could talk honestly and openly about what the cap will cost and find ways to pay for it. You could think of the word tax and even utter it as a way to pay for the changes in class size. You could face the future and accept responsibility for it.

What a chance you've blown.

Some day, a governor will come along who will be courageous enough to talk openly about raising taxes to pay for the state's needs, and who will be effective enough that he changes minds.

You are in no danger of being this individual.

You instead do the usual Tallahassee numbers shuffle.

You intend to make the choices as painful as possible -- threatening to cut funds to pay for nursing home care and using the savings for the schools.

So what if the pay of Florida's teachers is so poor that new teachers flee to Alabama? You've always been against doing anything to fix this. Then Bill McBride came along and made an issue of teacher pay.

Next thing we know, you did a flip turn. You told those people last Wednesday you had this idea to raise the salaries of new teachers. But you weren't going to be caught dead being responsible. You want instead for it to look as though this was the Legislature's idea.

On the tape of that meeting last Wednesday, you talk about wanting to show the voters "the full monty" regarding the class-size amendment.

Don't bother, Jeb.

We've seen the full monty. We've seen the real you.

-- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3402.

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