May, 2006. As part of an unprecedented $448.7-million line-item veto of state funding, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slashed a total of $5.8 million in grants to public libraries, pilot projects for library homework help and web-based high-school texts, and funding for a joint-use library in Tampa.
Jeb Bush minimized history education.
“Florida: Who Needs A State Liberry?”
Honestly. There is something that Jeb Bush has lacked on his staff for too long now: The Crusty Old Friend. He needs a C.O.F., probably as general counsel, who could take him into a private room and call him a (bleeping) (bleep).
But, no. If the governor is petulant, the staff is petulant too. How unfair that the voters passed Amendment 9! They must be taught a lesson. If it takes smelly clams and throwing out Andrew Jackson’s long johns, so be it.
Simon Says . . . say that the governor is always right!
No Dickensian caricature could produce words as sniveling as those of Ken Detzner, the fill-in secretary of state, who was assigned the duty of defending the library’s destruction. The man would have served well at Alexandria. Detzner tackled the task with Ron Ziegler-esque zeal in a series of letters to the editor.
But the state’s librarians stood up to Jeb and won.
After months of controversy that included thousands of e-mails, petition signatures and hundreds of picketers at the State Capitol, the Florida House voted Friday to ditch Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to give the biggest collection at the century-old State Library to Nova Southeastern University.