On Jeb Bush: what makes him tick? ... by gimleteye

Over the weekend, I received an email copy of a letter by Michael Lorion to Miami Herald political columnist, Beth Reinhard. With his permission, I'm reprinting his objection to her recent piece on the gradual re-emergence of Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and Coral Gables resident, back into public focus. Although I had the same visceral reaction as Mr. Lorion, on re-reading the opinion, "Jeb Bush slowly returning to the limelight", I don't find it "adoring" so much as blithely skipping over the dismal Bush legacy in Florida as though the conditions that he helped to ripen for the worst economic crash in Florida history never occurred. The sensitivity is due, to no small extent, to the way the conservative press refuses-- completely-- to criticize standard bearers like Jeb Bush.

Eyeonmiami has explored the same points Lorion raises: Jeb's role, through the State Administration Board, in buying billions of dollars in toxic debt from Lehman Brothers, a company for which he served as "consultant" once he left the governor's office. That debt, never described in its gruesome details, is forensic evidence: structured financial derivatives that draw a straight line from fees and bonuses from Wall Street bankers to the engineering cartel to ghost suburbs and millions of homes in foreclosure. It is also the story of Americans voting against their own interests. The hubris has never been accounted for, either. Check out our archive section, under "Jeb Bush" for more: I hope the mainstream media will do that check too, as the role of Jeb! in pushing Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP primary for US Senate becomes clearer. Beth Reinhard is a very good political writer, but ...

... she is far from alone among the mainstream press who failed to identify and critically analyze for the public the role of Miami and Florida political donors who pushed Jeb! forward, to spearhead eight years of regulatory failure in state government that meshed, perfectly, to hasten the fraud underlying the housing and building boom and asset bubble: this was Jeb's real legacy and no mention of his return to public life should omit it.

Beth,

I have to take issue with your adoring opinion article about Jeb Bush. I suggest that you perform a more careful study of Jeb Bush and his history of ethically challenged crony capitalism. You should begin with a close look at Jeb's relationship with Lehman Brothers while he was head of Jeb Bush & Associates shortly after leaving office as Governor of Florida in January 2007. The information is widely available on the internet and especially at Bloomberg.com or Palm Beach Post article at flapolitics.com from December 23, 2007.

A brief summary of the issues surrounding the loss of billions of dollars of Florida tax payers money by the The State Board of Administration over a period of a few months in 2007 offers a revealing look into the arcane world of politics, crony-ism and Wall Street financial maneuvering. In February, 2007, after leaving office in January, Jeb incorporated Jeb Bush & Associates and was hired as a consultant by Lehman Brothers in June 2007. In July one month later, Coleman Stipanovich, brother of Jeb's close political adviser and executive director of the State Board of Administration, starting buying hundreds of millions of dollars of high-risk, mortgage-backed bonds from Lehman Brothers. Ultimately, over a few months, those risky purchases amounted to billions of dollars. Those securities defaulted in four months and the Florida School Districts, towns and municipalities who were in the fund lost billions of taxpayers money. No one knowledgeable on Wall Street would buy that paper but in June, when Jeb went to work for Lehman Brothers, Florida held the largest pool of _public money market funds_ in the United States. Jeb's influence, power, position and close friendships in Florida paved the way for Lehman to off-load its junk paper on the Florida taxpayer.

On August 8, 2007 The State Board bought $100 million of Countrywide six-month CD bringing the pool up to $830 million of Countrywide paper. _ One week later_ , August 15, 2007, Moody's downgraded Countrywide to one step above junk.

Now it is incomprehensible that no one in Florida new what was going on. Stipanovich resigned December 4, 2007 and Jeb and Lehman refuse to say how much Jeb made on these sales or if he was even involved in the consulting/sales process. Maybe there is good reason why Jeb's public appearances have been scarce during the current Wall Street investigations.

And it is understandable why Jeb headlined a fundraiser for Bill McCollum, the current State Attorney General who should be investigating these criminal cronies to recover our taxpayers money. Jeb should reconsider returning to the limelight ...

Michael Lorion