Jeb Bush, Worse than Neil?

by emptywheel

Via Atrios, people are beginning to wonder whether Jeb Bush was responsible for approving Florida's purchase of a hefty chunk of the shitpile when he was Governor.

A government money market debacle unfolding in Florida is raising questions about former governor and presidential brother Jeb Bush's possible involvement in the mess.

Florida froze withdrawals from a state investment fund earlier this week when local governments withdrew billions of dollars out of concern for the fund's financial stability.

In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida's State Board of Administration (SBA). The run on the fund was triggered by worries that a percentage of the portfolio contained debt that had defaulted.

A majority of this paper was sold to SBA by Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people). Bush, as the state's top elected official, served on a three-member board that oversaw the SBA until he retired as governor in January. In August, Bush was hired as a consultant to the bank. Lehman spokesperson Kerrie Cohen, speaking on behalf of Bush, said they had no comment and would not say when the bank had sold Florida the paper. SBA did not return calls.

Which made me wonder what happened to investigations into Jeb's role in the last piece of shitpile Florida bought: Over $300 million in Enron stock, also approved while Bush was in charge of Florida's State Board of Administration.

According to a report by AFSCME Florida Council 79, Inside the Florida State Board of Administration: Mismanagement Made the Enron Loss Inevitable, the State Board of Administration (SBA) repeatedly engaged in poor investment practices under the watch of its Board of Trustees, chaired by Gov. Jeb Bush. Despite warnings from inside and outside the SBA, the trustees failed to correct these problems, leading to a stunning loss on Enron stock nearly three times greater than that of any other state retirement fund. The trustees failed to act as Alliance Capital Management, one of the pension fund's money managers, continued to invest in Enron even as its financial instability became public and the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating the corporation.

Michael Froomkin has a detailed description of what this means for FL here.

The possibility that Jeb presided over not one but two massive transfers of money from Florida's government coffers into the pockets of his friends raises the possibility he'll be remembered as more corrupt than his brother, Neil. I know it's a tough contest, trying to figure out which Bush brother is the most corrupt. But Neil Bush only indirectly stole from taxpayers with his Silverado Savings & Loan. And while it's pretty clear Neil's company was shafting taxpayers to put money in Ignite's bank accounts, I'm not sure if that matches the scale of Jeb's apparent wholesale emptying of Florida's coffers into corrupt and losing business deals.

Comments

[phred]

W wins hands down in the corruption department, followed by Jeb then Neil.

[prostratedragon]

Wow, Krugman, by way of Mark Thoma, just got me pulling together a few things on this. Don't forget the sickening Edison Schools episode.

I'm glad to see a lot of people picking up on this; it's way past time for some real scrutiny, and density might make it happen.

[emptywheel]

Yeah, W's a totally different kind of corruption entirely.

You think W will preemptively pardon both brothers before he leaves office, along with Scooter and Karl and everyone else?

[DrDick]

Well let's be real here. Jeb is the only Bush brother with a triple digit IQ. It is hardly surprising that he succeeded in being more corrupt than Neil, who is probably even more incompetent than Dubya.

[DrDick]

"You think W will preemptively pardon both brothers before he leaves office?"

Actually, he cannot pardon Jeb, whose presumed offenses are state and not federal crimes. Neil's offenses listed here are very old news and probably the statute of limitations has long since expired.

[phred]

EW, agreed, but I didn't want to leave him off the list ;)

And yes absolutely, W will pardon everyone. Given that he has gone off-scale with signing statements, I expect him to do the same with pardons. And with any luck there will be enough charges brought against all of his friends and family members to require it ;)

DrDick, I respectfully disagree. W has been wildly successful thus far. His incompetence is a bit of an optical illusion because you and I have an entirely different idea about the function of government than BushCo. From what I can tell, they have methodically and efficiently worked through their to-do list.

[emptywheel]

DrDick

What crimes are we talking here? I'm not sure precisely what'd they be (I guess it depends on what kind of evidence we have, though it's not illegal to approve bad investments)?

[bmaz]

Yeah, I dunno; I see a hard road to make out crimes against Jeb. Batshit insanely bad judgment absolutely. I would think you would have to have pretty decent evidence of collusion and a scheme combined with knowledge the shitpile was going to collapse. The fact that the rating companies/agencies were still giving the shitpile AAA or whatever ratings pretty much is prima facie evidence in Jeb's favor on that issue though. I wonder if Jeb has now exceeded the gross amount of other peoples money that brother George lost in his business deals.... Neil is a piker compared to these two.

[Jodi]

I think that Jeb Bush will be remembered as the best Bush, Then Bush Sr. as the second best. Of course if Iraq is going to be eventually straightened out, then George W. could be as good or better than the Father. I have not followed this money market issue and I am not sure if merits serious attention.

[phred]

"remembered as the best Bush" -- et tu, Jodi? That's damning with faint praise if ever I saw it.

bmaz, this is just a hypothetical, but if Lehman Brothers made generous contributions to Jeb's campaign war chests, and then Jeb steered the SBA toward making purchases from Lehman Brothers as some sort of quid pro quo, would any laws be violated by that? Or does it only rise to the level of being unethical?

[sojourner]

Slightly OT... EW, do you know how would I go about emailing the chief grand poohbah at Newsweek? I looked at their website for a good while yesterday but could not find any link or email address to use. I want to explain in no uncertain terms why I am not renewing my subscription (since they chose to give Rove some credibility). I figure the higher up the chain that I can send it, the more attention it will get...

[bmaz]

Phred - Oh, of course that would qualify; but I didn't see any evidence, even a rumor, about that.

[phred]

Thanks bmaz. Like I said it was intended to be hypothetical, just wanted to double check. So then we are left with a Bush simply making bad decisions? Well, I guess that's to be expected, too ;)

[DrDick]

EW -

I am not actually sure Jeb actually committed any crimes (thus the "presumed crimes"). I was merely responding to the earlier post about a Dubya issuing pardons to his brothers. From what little I have read, there is some suggestion that his actions in regard to the shitpile may not have been entirely above board, but again I do not know that they broke any laws. The law is pretty lax about abuses at that level, as opposed to say writing bad checks or shoplifting a six pack of beer.

[Hugh]

An added aspect of this is in my scandals list entry 178.

Janet Rehnquist, daughter of the late Chief Justice, was Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services from August 2001 to March 2003. She replaced numerous senior staff including all six of her deputy inspector generals through involuntary retirements and reassignments. She delayed an audit of Florida’s pension fund before the 2002 election in which the President’s brother Jeb Bush was running for re-election. The audit would have shown that the fund had lost $300 million in the Enron collapse.

[bmaz]

Good one Hugh; thanks for reminding of that.

[prostratedragon]

One might mull over the input requirements of certain deliberately complex transaction structures. Given unexpectedly short notice, or perhaps large volume to be serviced in relation to standard capacities, bold action might occasionally be required.

[JohnJ]

Sorry guys, Jeb's just a run of the mill Florida Politician. Not that he wasn't corrupt, he did a lot of damage here that will last for decades, it's just he's a amateur at it here in Florida.

They just found a perfect pigeon for Jeb to pluck on his way to the White House, since his brother already was plundering Texas. He also had Barbra Harris in place in 2000 for .....

Some coincidence!

[nolo]

a little O/T, but while EW
and others are cataloging and
analyzing the latest EFF docu-
dump, somehow it seems we all
missed the latest US attorney
firing document dump from the
DOJ, over at chairman conyers'
HJC shop. . . a lesser light,
perhaps, in the white-hot evil
glare of bush/cheney scandals,
but what's new there, to my eye,
is dana perino -- a white house
spokesperson -- seeming agitated
about what even she knew was
plainly improper, back then. . .

back then being as of early-march, 2007.

take a look.

p e a c e

[Mad Dogs]

Thanks for that great heads-up nolo!

And btw, as a result, we now know that Dana Perino's WH email address is [email protected]

Just in case anyone wants to get her recipe for crow.

[nolo]

mad dogs -- he he!

yup -- i am actually
beginning to think there
may be some more significant
stuff in these latest three
DOJ sets -- maybe even more
than just an email to get a christmas
cookie recipe [complete
with falsified frosting!],
or two, from dana perino. . .

i think i'll go back and take
a deeper dive, tomorrow -- but
for now, i'm off to snooze. . .

p e a c e

[hauksdottir]

How much does Jebby get as a "consultant" for Lehman Brothers? Direct and indirect!

Do they fly him around the country? Annual retainer or outrageous speakers fees? Hiring other friends and family? A Member of the Board would have to show up for meetings, but a consultant could merely lend his name to the letterhead and reap a windfall.

Knowing the dates would be helpful. Someone in Florida knows when they bought the used toilet paper from Lehman. Since Lehman is publicly traded, a FOIA request might even bring back some pertinent information from that end.

The best part is that evidence of financial shadiness might make him even less appetizing as a candidate to the Republicans. Not so much that his dealings caused major losses to those he was supposed to protect, but that evidence crawled across television screens. If there is anything the Republicans hate, it is publicity for their malfeasance.

[BlueStateRedhead]

Janet Rehnquist, daughter of the late Chief Justice, was Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services from August 2001 to March 2003.

Was that I-can-carry-a-gun-on- gov.-property-and-you-can't-stop-me-federal-police Janet?

She got booted eventually, no? At least as far as K street

Or is that a dream I should be having at this hour in the Blue(and one-foot-snow)WhiteState?

help me EW.

[formerly undecided]

There are more than two questionable investment decisions that Jeb has been involved with. Are you familiar with Liberty Partners? I have been trying unsuccessfully to discovers who the principals in that firm are. Here's a little background information:

The Florida Retirement System for Florida government employees, including public school workers, is on the verge of becoming the principal owner of a financially failing school-management company that makes its money by supplying private services to operate poorly performing public schools.

Liberty Partners Inc., a New York money management firm whose sole client is Florida's public employee pension fund, is the primary bidder in a move to buy out Edison Schools Inc., which has never turned a profit. The beleaguered 11-year-old, publicly traded Edison has aggressively pushed to contract with school districts to run public schools, including Reeves Elementary School in Miami.

Liberty Partners, along with Edison founder and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Whittle, have proposed paying shareholders about $110 million from Florida's $93 billion pension fund. It's not yet decided if the pension fund, or some other investor, will absorb Edison's debt, which would cost $70 million more.

Florida AFL-CIO President Cynthia Hall, AFSCME Florida Council 79 President Jeanette Wynn, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Southern Region Director Keith Maddox and Florida Education Association (FEA) President Andy Ford wrote a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, who sits as chair of the State Board of Administration, denouncing the deal as “an unsound economic decision” and demanding that “action to reverse the decision should be taken immediately by the State Board of Administration.”/

[smgumby]

I think both Jeb and Niel are lucky that W has overshadowed any possible amount of corruption they could possibly muster.

What a family!

OT - I just saw your new digs at Firedoglake, very nice! Your comments there seem to be either disabled or just not up and running yet, so my welcome to you there won't show up... ...so Welcome!

[Mary]

How are the EW digs at FDL v. TNH supposed to work?

[Jodi]

I heard that Neil Bush was trying to help victims of Katrina with free educational software and that the Democrat Governor of Lousiana had refused his offer. If true, very disapointing but not surprising. I've got to get back to work now or I would offer more insight!

[JohnJ]

Ah ha! I knew there was a reason Jeb was sabotaging the Florida school system (not that he had much to do to #48 in the US).

He actually claimed that there was "extra money" in the system because his rich friends were paying for seats in public schools that their kids in private schools weren't using, so it's only fair we subsidize their private tuition with public money. Funny how there is “extra money” in the 48th least funded system in the country.

They wound up tying the vouchers to FCAT results, basically TAKING money from the worst performing schools to give to the rich (can you say "backdoor regressive"?) This may have been just a little extra spending money for the rich, but it’s appalling what they did to our kids just to get at it. Imagine a 3rd grader spending all year preparing to take a one time do-or-die test. That was bad enough in college; it’s horrible for 9 year olds. The private schools are exempted from the FCAT and there are NO standards or even oversight for the private schools or their staffs.

We also have privatized prisons that have inmates die for unknown reason and prisoners transferred to foreign governments without going through extradition proceedings.

If you are doing any research on his corruption, I’d love to find out how connected the makers of the FCAT test are to the Bush mafia. I think that was a no-bid contract and it’s huge. Baby scrub was also playing at that rich kid’s game, being a developer, before dad bought the Governorship for him; there is already questions into some his deals there.

Then there’s Barbara Harris in 2000.

Jeb is a member in good standing of the Bush mafia. Dig a little and you will find a lot.

I’d love to spend time researching this, but I have to replace my job, which went to China without me, before we are homeless for Christmas. I’m too stressed to think right now. Looks like another Florida Christmas.

[JohnJ]

I hate to back you-know-who but IIRC Jeb did buy some questionable educational software for home schooled kids that costs more than putting a kid in class.

[herefast123]

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