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Sunday, December 02, 2007

Maybe Rachel Maddow can sleep better tonight
Posted by Jill | 6:05 PM
Last week Rachel Maddow revealed, after Dick Cheney's latest incident with his nonfunctioning heart, that her nightmare conspiracy theory is for Dick Cheney to step down and be replaced by Jeb Bush, who will then run as an incumbent vice president in the 2008 election.

I have to admit that I've had this nightmare conspiracy theory too, given the Bush family's royalistic tendencies and the old man's desire to not have Captain Fuckup be the family's political legacy. But today it may have become somewhat less likely:

A government money market debacle unfolding in Florida is raising questions about former governor and presidential brother Jeb Bush's possible involvement in the mess.

Florida froze withdrawals from a state investment fund earlier this week when local governments withdrew billions of dollars out of concern for the fund's financial stability.

In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida's State Board of Administration (SBA). The run on the fund was triggered by worries that a percentage of the portfolio contained debt that had defaulted.

A majority of this paper was sold to SBA by Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ). Bush, as the state's top elected official, served on a three-member board that oversaw the SBA until he retired as governor in January. In August, Bush was hired as a consultant to the bank. Lehman spokesperson Kerrie Cohen, speaking on behalf of Bush, said they had no comment and would not say when the bank had sold Florida the paper. SBA did not return calls.

While SBA wouldn't confirm, Bloomberg reported the amount of debt in default is around $900 million.


Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

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