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Crowd follows mother Bush's lead
By Times staff
On the front row, one camera fired back at a crowd that included two entire rows of Gov. Jeb Bush's family. Behind the camera's flash was Barbara Bush, mother of the governor and wife of former President George Bush. She wore a bright mauve, full-length coat and her traditional pearls. When the inaugural crowd greeted the governor with a prolonged standing ovation, the governor turned to his mother. "Mom, if you would sit down, everyone else would," the governor said. She did and everyone else sat. * * * Some of the cameras in view were feeding live shots of the crowds at inaugural events to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement command center. FDLE did not record the events, but used cameras to help keep an eye on the crowd under heightened security in place since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Tight security was evident everywhere Monday and Tuesday as Florida prepared to swear in the brother of a sitting president. Police officers with binoculars were on top of the House and Senate office buildings and the 22-story Capitol, keeping a close eye on the crowds. * * * Monsignor Jude O'Doherty of Epiphany Church in Miami was making a return appearance at the inaugural prayer breakfast Tuesday. Recalling his appearance four years ago, O'Doherty said: "We haven't stopped praying since, how do you think they were re-elected?" O'Doherty described his church as a "poor little parish" in Miami that is known for sending "our parishioners to high places in this life and the next." * * * The governor was frequently singing along with the music at various inaugural events this week, but really got into the spirit of things while the Blind Boys of Alabama sang a stirring version of Lord Remember Me at Tuesday's prayer breakfast.
"I tried singing it once," Popper said later. "It's a very difficult thing to sing." * * * George P. Bush, the governor's oldest son, was master of ceremonies for the inaugural ceremony and was quick to recover when he tripped over a missing governor. He noted that four former governors were in attendance and introduced Reubin Askew, Bob Martinez and Wayne Mixson. Then he looked behind him and quickly said "make that three former governors." * * * Two Tallahassee men went to the inauguration to protest for peace, but security agents soon moved them out of the line of sight of the Bush family. Michael Weddington, 53, was silently holding a sign that said "No Bush-Whack Attack on Iraq" when security agents asked him to move a few feet away from where he was standing. That put him behind a set of bleachers, which kept him out of the view of the dignitaries on the inauguration stage. Protester Tom Baxter of the group Veterans for Peace also got moved. "They flashed their gun," Baxter said. "I'm not going to pick a fight with somebody with a gun." * * * Inside the Governor's Mansion, Gov. Jeb Bush shook hands with well-wishers. Outside, crowds thronged at a street festival with mountains of free food and a live band playing oldies. It was a cornucopia of homegrown Florida products: fresh strawberries, steamed ears of corn, farm-raised shrimp and farm-raised clam dip, Florida beef and sugar cookies. The Florida Goat Association served up cheese and fudge made from goat's milk. People carried long-leaf pine seedlings, given out free by the Florida Division of Forestry, and children walked around with JEB painted on their faces. -- Times staff writers Lucy Morgan and Julie Hauserman contributed to this report.
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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