G.O.P. Lawmakers Deal a Setback to Governor Bush in Florida

[ProSense]

G.O.P. Lawmakers Deal a Setback to Governor Bush in Florida

By ROBIN POGREBIN
Published: May 13, 2006

MIAMI, May 12 — Seven months before Gov. Jeb Bush leaves office, his chance of leaving a legacy on his signature issue of education has been significantly impaired by state legislators from his own Republican Party.

Two of Mr. Bush's education priorities were voted down by the Legislature last week at the end of this year's session. The constitutional amendments would have reversed a State Supreme Court decision invalidating school vouchers and loosened strict limits on class size.

Six of the Senate's 26 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the class-size initiative; four did the same against the voucher plan.

Snip...

Newspapers have made much of these setbacks for Mr. Bush. The Orlando Sentinel called them "the biggest defeats of his eight years in office." The Miami Herald said they were "some of the most stinging defeats of his political career." The St. Petersburg Times said, "Florida is entering a period of profound transition: the post-Jeb era."

Snip...

State Senator Dennis L. Jones, Republican of Seminole, was one of the Republicans who broke with his party on the issue. During the debate, he pointed out that voters have opposed vouchers in referendums in Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon and Washington State. "Quit using public money to send our kids to private schools," Mr. Jones said, as reported by The Tallahassee Democrat.

State Senator Evelyn J. Lynn, an Ormond Beach Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, also joined Democrats in voting against the plan. Ms. Lynn said vouchers did not belong in the Constitution and called the plan an attack on the public school system.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/us/13jeb.html

[fooj]

1. Little Lord Pissypants seems to be screwing things up for everyone lately.

:rofl:

[smtpgirl]

2. Hopefully people will finally get that Bush is bad

any Bush, and I am talking breathing entities here, not humans or souls

[Idioteque]

3. They fired the GOP Senate Majority Leader for voting against vouchers.

He was on his way to be the first Cuban-American president of the senate.

[moobu2]

4. Good

Vouchers are some scheme thought up by a rightwing think tank meant to destroy public education.

[seafan]

5. "Florida is entering a period of profound transition: the post-Jeb era."

Sounds damn good to me.

[driver8]

6. Jeb will be crying himself to sleep tonight on his oversized pillow.

[Dr.Phool]

7. That's not an oversized pillow.

It's his fat ass.

[Lisa0825]

8. "an attack on the public school system"

well, DUHHHH!!! Thathas been part of the repuglican platform for years! Has she never read it?