Brotherly love

A New Republic article on the largess heaped on Florida — and, thus, on Jeb Bush’s constituents — by Dubya.

In 2000, when Hillary Clinton ran for the Senate in New York, pro-New York policies made by the Clinton administration made headlines as a presumed sop to Hillary’s campaign. Some, such as the president’s clemency for members of the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN, even prompted congressional investigations. By contrast, the press has paid relatively little attention to the way W. has used his office to boost his brother’s political fortunes. Almost every week brings another example of federal policy being altered to Florida’s–and specifically Jeb’s–benefit. After 9/11, when Jeb complained that new restrictions on foreigners making international flight connections in the United States were hurting Florida’s tourism, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) loosened the rules. In March the Bush administration gave Jeb a lift with environmentalists by backing restrictions on off-road vehicles in Big Cypress National Preserve–even though it simultaneously discarded a Clinton-era snowmobile ban in Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this year the Bush administration announced that NASA would move a major space shuttle maintenance program–and with it hundreds of high-paying jobs–from California to Florida.

No real suprises here, save the lack of press coverage.