Bush Brothers Trying to Pull off Another Robbery

News Analysis:Bush Brothers Trying to Pull off Another Robbery
Date: Monday, May 10, 2004
By: DeWayne Wickham

The Bush brothers are at it again. Four years ago, they teamed up to pull off the biggest heist in American political history. Last week they made it clear that they intend to do it again.

Here's how.

On Wednesday, state officials in Florida, where Jeb Bush is governor, ordered county election boards to begin purging convicted felons from their voting rolls. The following day President George W. Bush ordered a stepped-up effort squeeze the economic life out of Cuba.

The first act is intended to reduce the number of black voters in Florida, nearly all of whom cast their ballots for Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election.

The second is meant to curry the favor of the state's Hispanic voters, a majority of whom cast their ballots for George W. Bush four years ago. By tightening the screws on the government of Fidel Castro, Bush hopes win an even larger share of Florida's Hispanic voters this time around.

Florida is one of seven states that deny all ex-felons the right to vote. In the 2000 election, that bad decision was compounded by a flawed list that kept some people who were wrongly labeled as "ex-felons" ?- many of them black ?- from voting. Florida officials say that won't happen again. They say the problem has been fixed. But we won't know that for sure until after voters go to the polls in November.

What's certain is that in the 2000 election black voters in Florida turned out in record numbers. They cast 15 percent of all ballots that year, up from 10 percent in 1996. Anything that puts a dent in the black vote will increase the chance that George W. Bush will again win Florida, a key battleground state in this year's presidential election.


In Washington last week Bush announced that he intends to spend $45 million over the next two years to beam the signals of Radio and TV Marti into Cuba. The broadcast operations are thinly veiled propaganda vehicles that serve no useful purpose in resolving the diplomatic standoff between the Bush administration and the government of Fidel Castro. But in a presidential race that is shaping up as a "too-close-to-call" contest, that kind of pandering ?- when combined with a statewide purge of people on the state's ex-felons list ?- may put Florida in Bush's win column again.

"I was not elected to serve one party, but to serve the nation," Bush said in December 2000 when his contested election victory was finally affirmed. "The president of the United States is the president of every single American, of every race and every background. Whether you voted for me or not, I will do my best to serve your interests and I will work to earn your respect."

But after nearly four years in the White House, Bush has shown himself to be one of this nation's most divisive presidents.

Instead of reaching out to blacks, he ignored black elected leaders in Congress. Last year, Bush desecrated the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. by using the slain civil rights leader's birthday as cover for his decision to oppose the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions programs. This year the GOP president used a recess appointment to put Charles Pickering on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Pickering's appointment to that post had been blocked for two years by Senate Democrats who were troubled by his record. Civil rights leaders say that Pickering was once a segregationist, and opposed the Voting Rights Act while a member of the Alabama state legislature.

Instead of healing the nation, George W. Bush has done a lot to widen the ideological and political gap that divides us. And now with the presidential election just six months away, the brothers Bush are trying to use the powers of their office like a stickup man uses a Saturday night special ?- to commit a robbery.

Again.