NYT: Bush’s Decision on Oil Angers Californians.
In Washington on Wednesday, President Bush sat next to his brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, and vowed to spend $235 million to buy a number of highly unpopular oil leases in a state where his brother is running for re-election and that handed him the presidency in 2000 by the slimmest of margins.
Jeb Bush acknowledged that he would probably gain politically from the plan. But he and the president insisted that it was also sound policy because the move would protect beaches and wetlands.
Protecting wetlands makes a convenient excuse for handing out political favor, but it doesn’t add up in my book. I smell a rat. (A rat who looks an awful lot like Alfred E. Newman.)