Another Bush Family Power Play?

A lot of fascinating material in yesterday's New York Times story on the aftermath of the big deal to buy out US Sugar's Everglades holdings, but one thing of special note to politics: the unrestrained way that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dumps on current Gov. Charlie Crist.

A lot of fascinating material in yesterday's New York Times story on the aftermath of the big deal to buy out US Sugar's Everglades holdings, but one thing of special note to politics: the unrestrained way that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dumps on current Gov. Charlie Crist.

[M]ore than a dozen projects under way as part of a 10-year-old federal and district restoration effort have been suspended or canceled in anticipation of the cost of the United States Sugar deal. Among them is a massive reservoir in western Palm Beach County that was seen as a major step toward restoration of the Everglades. In total, $1.3 billion had already been spent on the projects, according to an internal water district document.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who initiated most of that work, said in an interview that he was “deeply disappointed” with the decision by Mr. Crist, his successor and a fellow Republican, calling the move to halt the projects a setback for restoration.

“To replace projects that were under way for a possibility of a project decades from now is not a good trade,” Mr. Bush said. “On a net basis, this appears to me there has been a replacement of science-based environmental policy for photo-op environmental policy.”

Marco Rubio returned the love.

Charlie Crist’s [US Sugar] plan will require higher taxes and increased debt, and it does nothing for the Everglades. In fact, it actually halts real restoration projects started by Jeb Bush, which were already underway.

Here's a list of the major milestones along the way to Everglades restoration: you can decide for yourself how to allocate the credit for major federal and state decisions stretching back to 1994.

But on the politics, not for the first time am I left wondering whether the Rubio-Crist battle is all it seems - and that what is presented to us as a conservative v. moderate battle is not really the latest manuever by the Bush family on its way to a White House run by a third dynasty.