FL State House Speaker hires consultants to examine investment mess (And they are *friends* of Jeb)

[seafan]

This is really rich.


Jeb Bush's apprentice, Florida Speaker of the House Marco Rubio, is concerned enough about the recent Florida investment fund debacle, that he has gone out and hired outside consultants to investigate the shady dealings that resulted in the loss of billions from the state investment fund.

Among the *consultants* Rubio just hired are none other than Tew-Cardenas, a law firm that employed Rubio in the mid 1990s. The firm's partners include Al Cardenas, former head of the Republican Party of Florida, who has ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush.


And why is this questionable?

Because Jeb Bush is under investigation for his role at Lehman Brothers, as it sold $842 million in subprime mortgage-backed debt to this Florida investment fund last summer.


There's nothing like Marco Rubio hiring Jeb's buddies at Tew Cardenas to *investigate* all the evidence of Jeb's involvement, isn't it? Wonder how this evidence might be erased *accidentally*?







Florida's Republican-riddled government is a cesspool of corruption.




State house hires consultants to examine investment mess

By Jennifer Liberto, Times Staff Writer
February 26, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Three months after problems arose with a local investment pool at the State Board of Administration, the Florida House speaker has hired consultants for $200,000 to examine what happened.

House Speaker Marco Rubio has asked the consultants, including a firm he used to work for, to deliver an initial report in two weeks, saying he wants to know quickly whether new legislation is needed to prevent future investment problems.

Part of the contract, $50,000, goes to Thomas Tew of Tew-Cardenas, a law firm that employed Rubio in the mid 1990s. The firm's partners include Al Cardenas, former head of the Republican Party of Florida, who has ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush.

On Tew's suggestion, the House has spent $150,000 to hire Tanya Styblo Beder, chairman of SBCC, a New York-based firm that advises financial firms. Beder briefly worked for California's Orange County when it had to declare bankruptcy in 1994. Tew called Beder an expert who "understands the financial engineering of these securities."

To pay for the consultants, the House has dropped its outside counsel for a lawsuit over university tuition with the Board of Governors, said Rubio's spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin. Instead, the House will split legal fees for the Senate's attorney, Dan Brown at Carlton Fields.

.....

Forbes: Jeb Bush involvement with Lehman raises questions in Florida investment fund debacle, December 1, 2007


Florida's Sunday Editorials: Time to take a hard look at Jeb's role in FL investment fund debacle, December 23, 2007


$8B pulled from state investment pool (Florida), November 29, 2007



Way to go, Marco Rubio. A loyal little soldier.

[madfloridian]

1. Is that the Al Cardenas...lobbyist.. that our state Democratic chair works for?

And earns 3000 plus a month? Same Cardenas..?

Oooh, I need to look through my files. Karen Thurman is employed by them.

Ok, I found something.

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/159917.html

"Thurman said her lobbying with Cárdenas doesn't affect her party post.

''He has his views, and I have mine,'' she said. ``I've known him a long time. He's a nice guy.''

Thurman also represents eAppeals, an online company that helps patients recover health insurance claims. She earned $100,000 from eAppeals in 2005, according to the most recent records from the Center for Responsive Politics"

''It seemed like we could do things in Washington together that made sense,'' said Cárdenas, who served as party boss under former Gov. Jeb Bush. ``We've started working on some accounts together and it seems like a good working relationship.''

Cárdenas declined to talk about any clients that Thurman is working with besides Miami-Dade County, saying, ``They're still in the oven.''

[seafan]

2. Al Cardenas. One of Jeb's BEST buddies from the FL recount days.

Jeb Bush's Recount Role Examined

by Lisa Getter
July 14, 2001

When it became clear that the disputed Florida election could deliver the White House to his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush immediately recused himself from any official role in the recount, promising to avoid even the "slightest appearance of a conflict of interest."
He directed his staff to spend their time on government business and pledged to do the same. Vowing that no political work would be done on the taxpayers' dime, six staffers took unpaid leaves to volunteer on the recount.

Despite that hands-off policy, the Florida governor's office in Tallahassee made 95 telephone calls to the George W. Bush presidential campaign, its advisors, lawyers and staffers during the 36-day recount period, records show. At least 10 calls came from an office number used primarily by Jeb Bush, including one call to a private line in George W. Bush's gubernatorial office in Austin. Another call from Jeb Bush's number went to Karl Rove, his brother's campaign strategist. One went to the Texas governor's chief of staff, Clay Johnson. Another went to Michigan Gov. John Engler, who soon flew to Florida to monitor the ballot recount in Broward County. Additional calls were logged to cell phones assigned to Bush campaign staffers.

In an e-mail this week to The Times, Jeb Bush said he could not recall the purpose of the calls. "I have no clue what these calls were about," he wrote.
"They most likely were return phone calls," Bush added. "In the alternative, they could have been my assistant passing on a request for an invitation to speak or an autographed picture. They might have been answering a request on where to eat in Tallahassee for the hoards of Austin folks that made their way here. They could have been for many reasons. I don't remember."

.....

But some supporters of former Democratic nominee Al Gore have questioned whether Jeb Bush used his position to influence events behind the scenes after the election. It now appears he was more involved than he has publicly acknowledged.

The governor visited the state GOP headquarters in Tallahassee that functioned as the Bush campaign command center for the recount at least once, for example. He also dialed into at least one conference call with campaign operatives, aides said. And days after the recount ended, he hired Kathleen Shanahan, the Bush-Cheney deputy campaign manager, as his chief of staff in Tallahassee.

"I talked to him every few days," said Al Cardenas, chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Although Cardenas said the governor "took himself out of the strategy end of things," he said Bush was kept abreast of developments in each of the state's 67 counties and given a "heads up on litigation."

.....

Don't get me started on 2000.