Jeb Bush will skip convention festivities

By Peter Wallsten
Los Angeles Times

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Younger brother of the president, governor of the biggest battleground state and the Bush brother long considered by family and friends as the most likely heir to the family dynasty, Gov. Bush is staying home.

Bush says he must remain in Florida because of Hurricane Charley, which cut a swath of destruction through the state two weeks ago. But close associates, as well as the governor himself, say he never really wanted to go to New York — and that he honestly has no interest in seeking the White House in 2008, at least not now.

"I just don't like all that big-dog, big-foot national stuff," Bush said of his decision to stay home. "I don't consider it part of who I am or what my job is."

Last year, asked about the possibility that he might face New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a 2008 race of epic political proportions, he rolled his eyes and said sarcastically: "Great. I could be on the cover of People magazine."

There are personal reasons, however, for him to shun the spotlight right now.

His family life remains difficult. His daughter, charged in 2002 with trying to use a forged prescription, has undergone extensive treatment. Also, associates say the governor's wife, Columba, is uncomfortable in her role as first lady and would resist stepping up to the national stage.

Even the political realities dictate a low profile. Although Bush easily won re-election as Florida's governor in 2002, polls show him to be a polarizing figure in his state, with a tenure marked by legislative victories but also controversies such as the alleged disenfranchisement of black voters and a social-services agency that has been mired in scandal.

Bush's absence from New York also does his brother a potentially critical favor: keeping Florida low-profile in a week when the GOP is loath to relive the images of the contested 2000 election.

Whether or not George W. Bush wins re-election, it is unclear how the country's electorate would react to the prospect of three President Bushes in close succession.

Even Jeb Bush's mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, told a gathering of White House staffers this year that two Bushes in the White House might be enough for now.
 
U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., Jeb Bush's running mate in a failed 1994 bid for the governor's office, said budget deficits, a shaky economy and a protracted war on terrorism during President Bush's term made 2008 unappealing.

"Unless President Bush really has some slam-dunk victories on the domestic front and the international front, Jeb is going to want some time to pass," Feeney said.

That's a disappointment for Stephen Moore, president of the pro-business group Club for Growth, who said he had lobbied the 51-year-old Florida governor to run.

Unlike President Bush, who has come under fire from fiscal conservatives for rising deficits and what some say is a tenuous commitment to their cause, Moore said the Florida governor was regarded as an ideological soul mate who pushed aggressively for tax cuts, school vouchers, lawsuit limits protecting businesses and an end to racial quotas.

"George W. is more of a calculating politician, and Jeb is more instinctively in favor of these conservative ideas," Moore said.

Ideology aside, the brothers' personal relationship has been the subject of speculation since the two first ran for governor of their respective states in 1994.

Some family members were quoted in a recent book, "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty," describing Jeb as the smart one who harbored longtime ambitions to be president and George W. as the gregarious one who wasn't serious until late in life.