To be fair, this isn't entirely his fault. Voters like politicians who appear to be tough on crime, even if that tough attitude isn't actually making them safer. But Bush's skills extend to pandering, not political courage. It takes real leadership to tell the public the truth: Denying prisoners the opportunity to become productive citizens isn't making the public any safer. He doesn't have the skills to lead Florida in that direction.
6. DCF Shouldn't Stand for 'Dead Child Found'
When Bush ran for governor four years ago, children who were wards of the state were being abused, lost and killed. Caseworkers were handling too many files, being paid too little and leaving their jobs too often.
Bush promised to fix the system. Four years later, Bush is running for re-election. Children are still being abused, lost and killed. Caseworkers are still overworked and underpaid. But now they're scapegoats too.
That's not the kind of change we were looking for. After his election, Bush promptly forgot about the kids, until one of them turned up dead. He didn't raise the salaries of caseworkers, nor did he hire more. He mostly did nothing until Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old entrusted to the state, became national news when it turned out she had been missing for a year and no one at the Department of Children and Families knew it.
When department Secretary Kathleen Kearney resigned, Bush didn't mount a search or take much time before he named her successor: ultraconservative Jerry Regier.
Controversy about Regier's religious views ensued immediately, but what about his record as the head of the Department of Human Services in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma is even worse than Florida in protecting children in state care, according to federal statistics. While 5 percent of kids in Florida return to foster care within 12 months of being returned to their families, 17 percent return within that time in Oklahoma. While child abuse reports are investigated in an average of 14 hours in Florida, it takes an average of 377 hours for investigators in Oklahoma to respond.
OK, fewer victims of child abuse actually die in Oklahoma than they do in Florida. In 1999, Oklahoma reported 47 dead while Florida reported 57. That's hardly a distinction to be proud of.
Regier claims he wasn't directly responsible for abused children in Oklahoma and says the state's abysmal record can't be blamed on him.
At best, he's inexperienced. At worst, he's incompetent.
Regier does seem to listen to reason, though. Regier recently called for a budget increase to pay for more background checks for caseworkers, better pay and training. Why didn't Bush think of that?
7. Democracy: It's Not Optional
Nowhere is Bush's quest for absolute dominance more obvious than in his repeated success at seizing control of the judicial branch of government. It wasn't enough that the governor made the appointments. Bush insisted on controlling the entire membership of the nominating commissions that submitted to him the short list of qualified candidates. The commissions used to include people appointed by the Florida Bar, whose members are most familiar with the judgeship applicants. Now, they're all Bush appointees, with a distinctly rightward tilt.
He also took control of judgeships that used to be elected. Florida voters soundly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to have all judges appointed. But when the Legislature created 18 new trial court judgeships in last year, Bush lobbied for the right to appoint them instead of making them elected positions. The eventual deal let him choose nine and let citizens vote on the other nine. Bush also seized more direct control of universities. He and the Legislature dissolved the state Board of Regents, then packed the new local boards of trustees with Republican supporters and conservative businessmen. University presidents who criticized the move shut up and fell in line behind their new bosses.
While he's seizing more and more authority, he's less and less interested in anyone who disagrees with him.
That basically excludes anyone who's not rich, white and conservative. Unless it's an election year.
In 1998, Bush visited farm workers in Immokalee and promised that, as governor, he would help them to get the pay and rights that they deserved. He's refused to talk to them since.
Bush is so hostile to the ideals of democracy that he tried to choose his Democratic opponent in November's election, running anti-Bill McBride TV advertisements during the primary.
With four more years in office, our self-appointed monarch may need advice from arch-nemesis Fidel Castro on how to keep the masses at bay.
