Gov. Bush calls congressman's insult `naive'
LESLEY CLARK
Mia Herald
Nov 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - Don't mess with Miami.
That's the message Texas-born Florida Gov. Jeb Bush delivered Tuesday to fellow Republican, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who dissed the governor's adopted hometown as a ''Third World country'' in recent remarks.
In a two-page letter, the governor, born in Midland, Texas, but claiming Miami as his home since 1981, used statistics -- citing high-scoring Hispanic students at Miami high schools and declining crime rates -- to tout the city.
''The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult,'' Bush said in the letter addressed to Tancredo's Washington office. ``Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January.''
Tancredo, in response to Bush, held his ground and suggested that Miami's increasingly multiethnic population means the city is losing its ties to the United States.
''America, because of the many places, cultures, races, and religious origins of our citizenry, depends on a few things to hold us together. One is the English language,'' Tancredo said in an e-mail addressed to Bush. ``That is something that fewer and fewer Miamians share. Unfortunately fewer and fewer Miamians think of themselves as Americans.''
Bush's eight years in office come to a close in January, and he has said little about his future, but has not masked a desire to move back to the Miami area from Tallahassee. His Mexican-born wife, Columba, is said to favor Miami and Bush himself took heat when he first went to Tallahassee in 1999 and complained about the lack of Starbucks coffee shops there.
Bush launched a real estate venture in Miami and co-founded the first charter school in the state in Miami's Liberty City. Miami also served as his political launch pad: He served as chair of the Dade County Republican Party in the mid-'80s.
Tancredo, who has championed building a fence along the border with Mexico, pointed to Miami as an example of what could happen to the United States if immigration policies are not tightened. He said of Miami in an interview with a conservative online news site, ``You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country.''
Bush said the remarks were ''naive'' and that Miami's high schools ``are home to the best advanced placement programs in the country.
'These achievements are a far cry from the `ethnic enclaves devoid of any English' you mentioned in your statement,'' Bush wrote in the letter.
On Monday Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, invited Tancredo to come to Miami to see the city for himself.
Bush seconded the suggestion: ''P.S.,'' he wrote in his own hand. ``I hope you will take Cong. Ros-Lehtinen's offer to come visit our community.''
But Tancredo suggested he had ``simply said something most people (even in Florida if our calls and e-mails are a measurement of sentiment) believe is true.
''We, as elected officials, should encourage the discussion of this issue rather than castigate those who attempt to bring it to light,'' Tancredo wrote.
Bush's retort came on the heels of a scorching letter from Beacon Council President Frank Nero, who called Tancredo's remarks ''outrageous and offensive'' and suggested, ``Sir, you owe our community an apology!
