Jeb Bush's Email Hypocrisy Comes Home to Roost
It's Sunshine Week in Florida, but storm clouds are gathering for Jeb Bush. Take a look at the press he's earning for his hypocrisy on e-mail records and transparency. New York Times: Mr. Bush delivered the latest batch of 25,000 emails in May 2014, seven and a half years after leaving the Statehouse and just as he started to contemplate a potential run for the White House, according to a newly disclosed letter written by his lawyer. A Florida statute governing the preservation of public records requires elected officials, including the governor, to turn over records pertaining to official business “at the expiration of his or her term of office.” "If they’ve been adding to it, it’s a technical violation of the law,” said Barbara A. Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Florida that advocates access to government information.
Bush may be "confused," but he "did exactly what Hillary did"
Ahead of Governor Bush's weekend in New Hampshire, he called in to NH Today radio bright and early this morning and said this of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails: "I don't quite get it. I'm a little confused by it." That's funny, because according to an expert quoted in today's Wall Street Journal, Governor Bush "did exactly what Hillary did" in choosing what emails to disclose from his private account. What's actually confusing is why Jeb continues to hold himself up as a paragon of transparency when he released just 250,000 of the over 3 million emails he apparently sent and received during his time as governor.
For Top GOP Candidates, Legal Questions Remain As Their PACs Raise Millions
Jeb Bush still hasn't launched his presidential campaign, instead opting to headline massive fundraising events through his "leadership PAC." It's going so well that he recently had to tell his wealthy donors to limit their contributions to a measly $1 million, presumably because the optics were less-than-ideal for a guy who is already viewed as wildly out of touch with the Today, the New York Times ran a piece on "blurred lines," only these legal issues had nothing to do with Robin Thicke. Rather, it has to do with the questionable operational relationship between still-undeclared presidential candidate Jeb Bush and his Right To Rise PAC.
VIDEO: GOP's Reckless Iran Letter Backfires
The walking disaster that is the GOP leadership has outdone themselves. Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to the Iranian government encouraging Iran’s leaders to dismiss the ongoing nuclear talks with the United States is insolent, reckless and plainly stupid. Oh yeah and it might be a felony. Does the GOP they really think they are going to score political points by cozying up to Ayatollah Khamenei? Horrendously, every member of the Republican Senate leadership signed the letter, as did GOP presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Rubio’s even fundraising off of this treacherous political embarrassment. Check out our new video, and the brutal headlines for the GOP after the jump.
MEMO: 10 Questions For Jeb Bush And One For The Media
To: Interested Parties From: Brad Woodhouse, President, American Bridge 21st Century Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 Re: 10 Questions For Jeb Bush And One For The Media I have one question for the media. If y'all are going to spend every waking moment obsessing over the minutiae of Hillary Clinton's email habits, why shouldn't Jeb Bush -- whose usage of private emails and servers during his tenure as governor is strikingly similar to Clinton's -- be subject to the same scrutiny? If anything, Governor Bush has more issues with his transparency than Secretary Clinton, and he's done far less to address them. So here are ten questions he should answer:
- If Bush sent and received over 3 million emails as governor, as he has said himself, how are we to believe only 250,000 were public records?
- How did Jeb Bush decide which emails were public records and which staff members were in charge of that process?
- What key issues were discussed in the 90% of emails that remain unreleased? The 2000 recall? Terry Schaivo?
Walker all-in for welfare accountability… except for his corporate welfare program
This past Saturday at the Iowa Ag Summit, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker trotted out one of his most tried-and-true brags when he pontificated about how he's made it harder for working class Wisconsinites to obtain food stamps by proposing drug testing and other hurdles for welfare recipients to overcome. It's a stigmatizing line that the presidential hopeful has used countless times to highlight his conservative credentials in front of audiences in his home state, in Iowa and recently at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Underlying Walker's rhetoric is misguided right-wing logic that drug testing welfare recipients constitutes strong stewardship of taxpayer funds. Indeed, Walker is all about making it harder for members of the working class to access government assistance. But he's all for making it easier for corporate titans to access taxpayer-funded grants and advantageous tax breaks through the woefully mismanaged private economic development agency he created -- the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). WEDC has been as ineffective at helping Walker reach his infamous goal of creating 250,000 new jobs in his first term as it has been scandal-ridden.
MEMO: Scott Walker Refusing to Answer Questions after Doubling Down on Extreme Positions
As Scott Walker gets closer and closer to announcing his run for president, he’s doubling down on extreme positions that are taking him closer and closer to the right wing conservative base. On top of that, he’s avoiding answering press questions on these positions because he only wants to talk about them to extreme audiences who share his views. In just the past couple weeks, he avoided answering press questions at CPAC in late February, after a speech to the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce last week, at the Iowa Ag Summit this past weekend, and after signing his disastrous right-to-work bill in Wisconsin yesterday. Since Scott Walker won’t talk about his positions, we’re happy to fill the void. Here’s what Walker has been up to lately:
- He insulted working families across the country when he compared union protesters to ISIS terrorists;
- He’s falsely claimed that President Reagan firing air traffic controllers made the Soviet Union take him more seriously;
- He’s attacking working families again by pushing through new right-to-work legislation after promising he wouldn’t;
Iowa Ag Summit Shines Light on Glaring Flaws in GOP Field
The Republican field had a chance to stand out at this weekend's Iowa Ag Summit, but instead displayed the same political skill that cost them the Presidency in 2012. Scott Walker focused on promoting his extreme positions, Jeb Bush ran a failed play from Mitt Romney's playbook, and the #GOPRebrand hit new lows as Rick Perry compared immigrants to tracking UPS packages and Rick Santorum repeated his opposition to legal immigration.
Rick Perry
Compares Immigrants to UPS Packages
Mike Huckabee
Says Immigrants Come "Because They've Heard There's A Bowl of Food Just Across the Border"
EXPOSED: GOP's Dazzling Display of Hypocrisy
Republicans have been quick to point the finger after the recent e-mail controversy. But attempts to score quick political points has only invited scrutiny into their questionable e-mail practices. They should look in the mirror before reciting their talking points. Check out these articles calling out the GOP for their humiliating hypocrisy.
MSNBC: Jeb Bush owns his own email server
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush owns the server that runs [email protected], the personal email account he used as governor to conduct official, political and personal business.
Asked who controls the server that operates that email address, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell responded: “He owns it.”
The server was housed in a state-owned office building during the years that Bush served as governor, from 1999 until early 2007. A Bush source familiar with the situation said there were “digital security” measures in place to protect Bush’s emails, but declined to elaborate on how the server and its data were physically and digitally kept from harm.
Scott Walker's Hypocritical Attack
American Bridge 21st Century Vice President Jessica Mackler released the following statement on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's hypocritical attacks:
"The past few weeks have revealed Scott Walker to be the least prepared, least knowledgeable Republican presidential wannabe, but now he's making a run at being the most hypocritical, too. These cheap, political attacks are ignorant of Governor Walker's record--and reality."