NewsMax.com
Monday, March 12, 2001

As the Republican president arrives Monday at Panama City, seat of the Panhandle county where he had a 2-1 margin last November over his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, he is to be greeted by a public-relations mini-blitz denouncing him and his brother Jeb, the governor.

Although the popularity of the new president is soaring across the nation as he takes his case for a tax cut over the heads of closely divided members of Congress and directly to their constituents, leaders of the Democratic Party in Florida are intent upon continuing their vendetta against Bush.

It is a repetition of their charge – now largely abandoned by Democratic politicians on the national level – that Bush, with the help of his brother, "stole the election."

As the Associated Press is reporting:

Democrats are investing $20,000 to broadcast a commercial over the next few days on Tallahassee and Panama City stations blasting the Bush brothers.

The ad says: "Jeb Bush delivers Florida to his brother George, and now we're going to pay the price. ... Jeb Bush didn't stand up to count Florida's vote right, and George Bush's budget undermines prosperity. Bush fuzzy math ... it doesn't add up."

The Democrats are also going to hold news conferences up and down the Peninsula State, renewing their allegations about the "stolen election."

Florida Democratic Chairman Bob Poe said, "We're challenging Jeb Bush and his big brother to offer more than lip service to fix Florida's election system."

He added they were also "going to mark the occasion with a little reminder that Florida didn't buy his tax cut before the election, and they're not buying it now."

The Bush team anticipated the president would be attacked about the recounting of Florida votes that finally gave him the state's 25 electoral votes. There was an internal debate over whether he should even acknowledge it.

Some advisers argued that he should gingerly refer to the controversy by reaffirming his backing for election reform, including steps to prevent voter fraud.

Those who prevailed contended there was nothing to be gained, in Florida or elsewhere in a nation grown weary of the Florida vote-count squabbling.

But Florida Democratic Party officials, who seem to think he is vulnerable on that issue, are determined to make the most of it while he is a guest in their state.

John H. Carter, chairman of the Democratic Party of Bay County, where Panama City is situated, accused the White House of being "not well attuned to what is happening" if it believes Floridians have forgotten about the five-week election deadlock.

"There is a general unrest," Carter said, "a continued feeling of having been wronged by our governor and the [Republican] secretary of state."

Bush is ignoring all that as he zeroes in on his legislative initiatives spelled out recently to a joint session of Congress.

Appearing first at nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, he was expected to highlight his proposals for improving housing and quality of life in the military.

Northwest Florida is GOP territory, with several major military installations and tens of thousands of retired service personnel.

Bush was coming to Florida primarily to generate constituent support for his tax-cut plan that he hopes will edge the state's two moderate-Democratic senators, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, into his corner in a Senate split 50-50 between the two political parties.

When Bush addresses a joint gathering of a Rotary Club and the local chamber of commerce, he will concentrate on promoting his tax cut.

University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus, who has gained a reputation as one of the state's keenest political observers, said it makes sense for Bush to take his tax-cut campaign to the Panhandle, which is more reflective of the rest of America than the largely liberal Lower East Coast.

"It exemplifies the average American that he's trying to portray will be the beneficiary of this tax plan," she said. "Going there is probably good politics."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Presidential Race 2000