Retiring from politics in 2010 at the ripe age of 62, Mel Martinez (R-FL), who won his seat by a very small margin in 2004, will thereby avoid a very tough bid for re-election. Martinez’s policy positions closely mimic those of current President George Bush who at the time of the 2008 election had a 9% approval rating in Florida. Nine percent does seem a little high to us, but then again is it really that surprising after how wonderfully the war in Iraq has gone combined with the thought of what the Social Security situation in Florida would be like if Bush had been successful in privatizing it? Well one thing is for sure, apparently Martinez is the only Republican in Florida that understands that scandalous activity and even a minor connection to George Bush is devastating enough to derail almost anyone’s political career. And so, gracefully and dutifully, he won’t seek re-election in 2010.

Wonder what Martinez is thinking now that CNN is reporting that Republicans are URGING former Florida Gov. Jeb “I’ll have to change my name to win” Bush to run for his vacated seat. Probably something along the lines of, “Am I being Punk’d? Ashton Kutcher, you bastard, where are the cameras? Jeb Bush, really? Haha, you got me good, you SOB!”

To his credit, Jeb has definitely been the least directly harmful Bush in politics. Among the very worst things he did as Gov of Florida was to slash a ton of funding for pubic libraries and after school programs and support the pro-life request for Teri Schiavo to be kept ‘alive’ on life support. He actually left office in 2006 with an approval rating of 60%, a 51% cushion on the President, but that was a different time with a different economy and a war that hadn’t dragged on for another two years. Not only that, but there’s a case to be made about his involvement in the 2000 Presidential election which as I’m sure Democrats will remember, came down to Al Gore winning the popular vote and losing the electoral college by one state, his. One might be inclined to say that Jeb Bush might have been the biggest enabler of George W. Bush. This is just some of the most obvious points of contention.

It makes me wonder what sort of dubious activities those folks, you know the ones that think Sarah Palin could be a viable candidate in 2012, must be planning to carry out over the next four years in order that anyone could even remotely imagine the political idea market being warm enough for another neocon to win a battleground state, let alone another Bush! It seems that rank and file Republicans just don’t get it: the revolution is over, baby. Someone over at GOP headquarters needs to turn off the FoxNews and take a look around.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! Make sure to follow on Twitter! Comments/love can be sent here. Thanks for reading!