Monday, January 23, 2006

The Governor Just Doesn't Get This Whole Journalism Thing


We were wondering how long it would take first brother Jeb to figure out what the president already knows. If you want to get your message across, don't talk to anyone who might be capable of rational thought.

The Florida Republican Party on Saturday called security to eject reporters listening to Governor Jeb Bush tout his party's accomplishments in Tallahassee. State Republican chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan declined to comment on the expulsion, and the party's executive director explained that party leaders merely wanted to keep their party functions private.

When asked why the Republican party would want to keep it's accomplishments private, a staffer who asked not to be named said, "Two words. SunCruz."

Five hotel security staffers and a sheriff's deputy escorted reporters away from where they could hear the governor during a speech. "The reporters were laughing pretty loudly," said a Deputy. "And when they shouted 'you call Schiavo an accomplishment' we got the sign to throw them out."

"I apologize for that if I'm indirectly responsible, which I'm not," Bush said after addressing Republican activists gathered at Disney for a party meeting. "So I guess I don't have to apologize for anything, huh? Well, maybe my brother."

"I wanted to give you a little bit of a sense of what's happened over the past seven years, and even prior to that with Republican leadership because we don't read about it much in the paper," the governor said at the start of his remarks. When asked how he expected to read it in the paper if he kept throwing reporters out of his speeches, the governor responded that he "had a team looking into that."

The governor, starting his final year in office, said later that he also expressed "strong support" for Katherine Harris who is running to unseat Democratic incumbent Senator Bill Nelson. "I'm 100 % behind the candidacy of Karen," Bush said.

Eager to show her campaign is picking up steam, Harris held a rally at Saturday's party gathering where she promised a campaign "like no other you have experienced. It'll be a campaign without money, without support, without a message and without any clear purpose, but my fellow Floridians, I will tell you one thing. We'll look good doing it."

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