Word: jeb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...doesn't "mind losing when it's based on principles." Aides say he wants his governorship to be known more for what he calls the "B-HAGs" - big, hairy, audacious goals - and few Republican Governors have ever turned a state into the conservative policy laboratory and bellwether that Jeb has made Florida, hanging chads...
...marked contrast to his brother, Jeb is considered a workaholic policy wonk (although he's been known to relax his patrician demeanor with a glass of Wild Turkey and Motown CDs), and he practically oozes public service vigor, part of what Bush-watchers call the family's drive to cement its place as the GOP's answer to the Kennedy dynasty. "Whether they agree with his policies or not," says political consultant and former Jeb spokesman Cory Tilley, "taxpayers still admire him because they know they're getting their money's worth from...
...Aside from his education reforms - which have put more corrective pressure on failing schools, introduced merit bonus pay for teachers and sparked a steady rise in Florida students' reading and math scores - Jeb gets strong marks for his plan to move most of the state's Medicaid patients to private managed care, which has been controversial but is regarded as a potential national model. He has also earned praise for diversifying Florida's economy away from low-wage tourism and agriculture...
...Still, Jeb's penchant for ideological overreach - especially regarding his obsession with shrinking government - has often backfired. While the state's threadbare child welfare agency is rife with neglect and malfeasance, critics complain that he has handed out millions of dollars in unorthodox tax breaks to companies that donate to private schools. Jeb, a morally conservative Roman Catholic, may eschew his brother's work habits, but he shares his Manichean world view - evidenced last year during his polarizing crusade to keep Terri Schiavo alive...
...This past spring he hailed Florida's lowest crime rate in 30 years - no small feat given the peninsula's population explosion. But even as he spoke, the legislature was shutting down the state's "boot camps" for juvenile offenders, get-tough facilities Jeb had long supported, because a black teen had died in January after a beating by camp guards. Says Mitch Ceasar, head of Florida's Broward County Democratic Party, "This is still a very centrist state, and Jeb Bush is very often out of step with most Floridians and, I think, most Americans...