Nobody in Florida’s journalist circles did a better job of covering the heavy-handed borderline dictatorship at times that was Governor Jeb Bush’s reign better than S.V. Date, then of the Palm Beach Post. Date held Bush’s feet to the fire like no other reporter in the state. He had the courage to say what needed to be said and willingness to risk his own career to try and ascertain the truth from a man who stonewalled like no other in our state’s history.

I have tried time and again to state on these pages that I believe Jeb Bush was a worse Governor than Rick Scott (who I cannot stand), more conservative than Governor Scott (the record backs me up on this) and a worse man than Governor Scott (This of course is highly debatable as both are terrible, selfish men). By comparison, Charlie Crist who was the Governor in-between the two was a shining light, certainly not an Askew or Graham like figure but relatively speaking a great Governor.

My efforts to remind folks about the Bush record have been ignored outside the pages of this site. However, nobody can describe the real Bush to a mass audience of people better than Date, and I am very excited that Politico has given him a platform to post and write this article which describes Bush’s transformation  which some might think almost certainly based entirely on political calculations, but really in some regards is based on family experience.

It is a must read for ANYONE the least bit interested in Florida or national politics. I should also state that I believe his brother was not as bad a President as most liberals thinks (He did steal an election and was illegitimate in my eyes but was not as conservative as I had feared he would be but was a war-mongerer and for that can never be forgiven) and it was Bush family tradition for each man in the family to “evolve” as time went on.

Jeb Bush was the most conservative Governor this state has had since Fred Cone. He is also now positioned as a moderate and sounds like a grown-up. It is all part of the way the Bush family operates.