Word: jeb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...Jeb does wait until the next decade to run for President, what will he do in the meantime? Friends say he'll most likely spend the hiatus back at home in Miami in the private sector, adding to the fortune he made there in real estate ventures in the 1980s and 90s. Recent reports said he'd been approached to replace outgoing National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue; but while that imperial sports throne might provide the kind of executive leverage Jeb enjoys, he says the job doesn't interest...