You’ll honor Jeb Bush — whether you want to or not

April 11, 2007

A couple of weeks ago, the faculty Senate at the University of Florida voted to reject a proposal to give former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) an honorary degree, citing, in part, Bush’s education initiatives.

The UF professors seemed to be sending a message. Yesterday, Republicans in the legislature sent one of their own.

Upset by this lack of Jeb Bush adoration, the conservative-controlled House Schools & Learning Council voted yesterday to force the university to rename its education school the “Jeb Bush College of Education.”

Over the faculty’s opposition, the school will now have “to erect ‘suitable markers’ noting the college’s new name and include the revised name in all university documents, including catalogues and brochures.” The lawmakers acknowledge they “came up with the idea as an answer” to the faculty’s denial of Bush’s honorary degree.

I wish I could say I’m surprised by the stunning pettiness of it all, but it is Florida’s Republican-led legislature, where Bush backers are sycophantic to the point of embarrassment.

Two unrelated thoughts. First, if the legislature approves the mandatory name change, how often do you suppose UF students will vandalize those “suitable markers”?

And second, is it me or do Republicans seem kind of obsessed with naming things after other Republicans?

We had Washington National Airport right across the river from DC. Not anymore, said Republican lawmakers, who mandated that it be changed to Reagan National Airport.

We had the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House, where most WH staffers work. Not anymore, said Republican lawmakers, who mandated that it be changed to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The White House Press Briefing Room became the James Brady Press Briefing Room. CIA headquarters became the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The Peace Corps headquarters in DC became the Paul Coverdell Peace Corps headquarters. Houston’s airport became George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The list goes on and on.

I don’t know if University of Florida will be forced to rename it’s College of Education after Jeb or not — it would be a ridiculous exercise in partisan vanity — but I find it odd that Republicans place such a high emphasis on renaming buildings for their GOP allies. It sounds like forced legacy creation, doesn’t it?

To be fair, I’m sure they’d prefer to switch it to the Tony Snow Press Briefing Room if they have the chance.

I’ll move out of DC, however, if they name the new baseball stadium George W Bush Stadium (although with the current Nats time, it would be quite appropriate).

  • … is it me or do Republicans seem kind of obsessed with naming things after other Republicans?

    Is there a county in this land that doesn’t have something named for Martin Luther King?

    Everyone likes to name stuff after people they admire — because it shows how important they are for admiring such an important person.

    (P.S. Ohio Rep. Ralph Regula has a regula-r habit of blocking legislation that would allow the continent’s highest peak to be known by its local name — Denali — because he percieves it as a snub of his district’s favorite son, William McKinley.)

  • i thought people had to die before things got named after them. now, that’s a thought……..

  • tit for tat from the state that gave us the stolen 2000 election…..the state that gave us Mark Foley and Katherine Harris…..is anyone really surprised?

  • What disturbs me about this piece is that it represents a very dangerous thread in Wingnutia – antiintellectualism. From dubya’s bragging that he got to be the Decider in Chief even though a C student, to the Park Service’s being forced to stock creationist books in the gift shops of national parks, there’ve been open efforts to proscribe and even outlaw the use of reason, and to substitute everything from toadyism to shredding the Constitution to advance the Wingnut agenda.

  • You have to love the irony of naming buildings of knowledge after the Bush family, especially George Jr and Jeb.

    Seriously, the ‘Jeb Bush College of Education’ I mean how degrading the actual U of Florida faculty.

    What next, the ‘Dick Cheney College of Truth’ ??

  • Jeb Bush has to buy any tribute. He’s been bought and sold since birth. Florida demeans itself by having his name attributed to it by any means. He’s a criminal and is equally responsible for for our country’s loss of prestige and integrity whose legacy is do whatever it takes to win no matter ethics, values, legalities or morals. His huge ego justifies it all when even a University must be blackmailed to honor him and every generation will know the story when they look upon your statues.

  • Maybe we should call it the “George W. Bush” budget deficit and the “Ronald Reagan” national debt as a reminder that cutting taxes alone doesn’t equate to fiscal responsibility.

  • The Jeb Bush College of Education really ought to be accompanied by the George W. Bush Library, the Kathernie Harris Department of Polical Science, the George H.W. Bush Institute for the Study of Ethics in Government, the Mark Foley Center for Adolescence Research, the Monica Goodling School of Law, the Alberto Gonzales Center for Constitutional Studies, and the Richard Cheney Cardiovascular Center. The possibilities are endless.

  • It sounds like forced legacy creation, doesn’t it?

    Well, given their record on the ground, can you blame them for trying?

  • Republicans suck, and they really don’t care who knows it. For this I am glad, because it makes it even easier to flush them down the toilet.

  • On second thought, if they are forced to rename the college of education, it would be fun to simultaneously rename the building that contains it, so that it becomes the Jeb Bush School of Education, in the William Clinton Building.

  • … how often do you suppose UF students will vandalize those “suitable markers”?

    I’d like to think this would be so…
    But given that torture-enabler John Yoo struts around Cal Berkeley like a celeb… I don’t think so.

    Lee Iacocca at 83 has got more idealism than 99.83% of our college students.

    In short:
    The future of America does not reside with its youth.
    Rather it depends on its Iaococcas.

  • Over the faculty’s opposition, the school will now have “to erect ’suitable markers’ noting the college’s new name and include the revised name in all university documents, including catalogues and brochures.”

    Typical ReThug punishment tactics. Hit folks in their wallets. The school will have to pay for the new signs and so forth and that won’t be cheap. That was one of Metro’s many objections to renaming National after President Naptime. Changing all of the signs, maps and so on cost millions of dollars. By the way CB, to many Washingtonians, it will always be National. Even if we have to get in your face and snarl “You mean NATIONAL Airport? 😉

    If Jeb (Is that his real name?) has any sense he’ll step in and stop this crap. Do it in the name of saving tax-payer dollars.

  • Jeb Bush College of Education.
    Motto: “Knowledge is Good”

    Let’s not forget the attempt to have Reagan’s head put on Mount Rushmore.

  • Did you actually say “The George Bush Centre for Intelligence”? Boy, if ever there was a building that turned out to be just a phony drop box, that’s it.

  • On a not minor note, most university buildings and schools tend to be named after major donors. For example, the University of Florida just renamed its graduate business school the Hough Graduate School of Business because William Hough, an alumni of the school, gave them $30 million to help build a new building. Telling donors that a building or school or even a room or a staircase will be named after them does help open pocketbooks. UF does, granted, receive financial support from the state, but that’s not enough to build new buildings without major fundraising efforts. If Jeb Bush is planning on donating millions to the school of Education, and that would be unlikely or nice, I could see this, but otherwise, no.

  • Those Republican yahoos in Florida’s legislature sure didn’t do Jeb Bush’s reputation any favors here. Hopefully Jeb has enough class to ask that his name not be abused in such a petty way.

  • Yeah, as if naming our National Airport after the president who fired all those air traffic controllers isn’t ironic enough.

  • Uhhhh…hope the Repubs are anticipating a change of name to the “Janet Reno College of Education” when the legislature goes Democratic…

    Maybe “Post-It” bronze plaques are in order here???

  • Being a resident of Florida, I think it’s awfully fitting. We’re ranked like 48th in the country in education. Jeb Bush, the champion of the FCAT, a narrow, shallow, comprehensive test, given every year from the third grade up. Children are drilled for this test all year long. It doesn’t teach them to think, it teaches them to memorize. So, yes, give the arrogant assknot his due. Every freaking bit of it. So, in 10 years when Florida still has some of the most underacheiving students in the country, everybody will know who to thank.

    Is it just me, or are College Republicans, this generation’s little brown shirt bastards?

  • Come to think of it, weren’t Latin American dictators always doctors or otherwise rewarded with an honorific title???…there was Dr. Duvalier in Haiti for example…and there was a whole bunch of doctors who ran Paraguay back in the day…

    Maybe the Florida legislature was just trying to amp up the plantation/banana republic atmospherics with Jeb’s honorary doctorate…you know, make it more attractive to the tourists???

  • I’ll wait to see if Crist shuts this one down, as part of his “De-Bushification of Florida” Plan….

  • What next, the ‘Dick Cheney College of Truth’ ??

    wouldn’ the “Dick Cheney School of Divinity” be more appropriate in this context?

  • The rest of us in states with colleges with education departments are all looking forward to cherry-picking the Florida faculty who refuse to work for a state that so openly insults and demeans them.

  • What if hurricane Hillary swept across Florida and destroyed the Jeb Bush College of Education? That would be funny. I wonder how long it would take to rebuild?

    these poeple must not have seen Zoolander becuase the “Jeb Bush College for kids who don’t read good” has quite a ring to it.

    Jeb is apparently short for James or Joseph. What is this cracker’s real name and wouldn’t it sound better than Jeb? James Bush College of Education sounds slightly less Hillbilly.

  • hahaha Chrensen @23, that reminds me of Oklahoma naming an airport ,Will Roger’s Int’l, after a man who died in a plane crash! The irony always makes me smile. In a similar vein, I think there is also an airport named after Wiley Post, who died with Rogers.

    Is this a bill that Crist could veto? He seems like a mostly decent Rep.

    But this is so typical of Republican payback.

    Uuuughhh.

  • The solution here is simple: rename everything after Democrats. There’s not a damn thing the GOP could do about it either. Not unless they regain control. Tit for tat, as they say. Let the new Name Game begin.

  • It would be a bit of sweet revenge if the school named all the toilets and urinals in the building after the legislators that passed this renaming bill and for other deserving Bush family members like Neil, Barbara (both of them) and Jenna … since they’re having to piss way money on this anyway.

  • I vote we start naming lots of things after R’s: particularly efficient shredders can be referred to as the ‘Cheney’, and particularly smelly, liquidy bull$hi+ can be called a ‘Rove’.

    The funny thing in Florida is how much negative press the government will get when they have a dedication ceremony for the newly named school, and have not a single faculty member show up for the ceremony.

  • The job for placing the new signs and designing the coat-of-arms should be given to the art students. Choice of materials is theirs. (They may wish to collaborate with the agriculture department and custodial services.)

  • I got your solution right here:

    Quote marks.

    The Jeb Bush College of “Education”

    It’s a two-fer: the sarcastic effect of calling it “education”, and the popular-and-misguided use of quotation marks to highlight something, which only highlights how uneducated the people using them are, which for a college that has to accept the name of the right-wing governor from the political crime family, is like a POW blinking in Morse code to send a message as s/he gives a propaganda message. In fact, that analogy’s a little closer to the truth than I’d like…

  • I’m a student at the University of Florida in the college of education.

    Here are links to our local papers’ articles on the subject.

    http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/LOCAL/704110343/-1/news

    http://www.alligator.org/pt2/070411house.php

    The measure would need to go through the state senate and then be signed by the governor to pass.

    I personally oppose the measure for a number of reasons.

    1) Jeb doesn’t want the honor; he believes his service speaks for itself. I agree

    2) Why should UF have to give away a college name that could potentially be worth millions of dollars?

    3) This does not seem like an altruistic gesture, but an vindictive act since the UF Factuly Senate denied an honorary degree to Jeb.

    4) I get my B.A.E. in three weeks….but I’m starting grad school this summer. I don’t want my M.Ed to be from the “Jeb Bush College of Education” for fear that it might seriously tarnish my resume.

  • It sounds like it has some nice features too. I’m hoping ACM or M’s will carry it so I can use a coupon!And, isn’t that great about Danelle Johnson!! We are going to have one heck of a time!

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