The best of Jeb Bush's emails as governor
Between messages from angry constituents to queries from reporters about the governor's mansion, Jeb Bush spent many hours on email during his time as Florida governor. After releasing roughly 250,000 messages he exchanged with Floridians last year, he turned the messages into a book called "Reply All."
Here's a sampling of some of the topics that made it into Bush's inbox:
The governor's mansion:
Bush emailed regularly with Brian Crowley, a former Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the Palm Beach Post. In one note, Crowley asked him about his new job: The biggest surprise he'd had, what was the most fun, what was his worst moment and was the door to the bathroom the smallest he'd ever seen?
"Brian, it has been a joyous experience. I get to eat dinner with my family many nights which we didn't do very much at home. Unfortunately, the food at home is verrrrrryyyyy good leaving me with no chance yet to lose any weight."
He also wrote that he was surprised by the "volume of my voice" and that, "the governor's bathroom door is the smallest in Florida. It requires a sideways twist to make it in." On the other hand, "The water pressure up here is great. Great showers!"
Marco Rubio:
"I need to get a sword for marco," Bush wrote to a few staff members in 2005.
"You might ask why," he writes in an explanation of the note. "It was because the Florida House of Representatives was about to designate Marco Rubio as its incoming speaker...I wanted to present to him a Chinese sword, since I was known to say from time to time, 'I am going to unleash Chang.' This meant I wanted to unleash a mythical power for conservative causes. I did indeed find and give him a sword."
Angry constituents:
In November 1999, Bush received an angry note who took issue with his support for pro-life policies.
"If you have the guts to read your own email, let this sink into you brainless mind - $10 Million to fund your christian (sic) value ideas of sex eduction (sic) is outrageous! You can take that plan, long with your fetus license tags, & any other brainless ideas & STICK IT UP YOUR FAT A--!"
"Have a wonderful restful day. You appear to need it," Bush wrote back less than two hours later.
Extreme sports
In June 1999, Robin Higgins, the executive director of Florida's Department of Veterans Affairs emailed Bush with this inquiry:
"For our WWII fundraiser, would you jump out of plane for us?"
Bush's response: "Nope. no way. No."
His father, former President George H .W. Bush, is a fan of skydiving.
Campaigning for his younger brother, George W. Bush, when he campaigned for president:
"i would like you to do what we pay you to do, run the state of florida. You said the other day you would be out getting votes for big brother. you are an employee of the state voted in by people who expect a days work for a days pay. besides that your brother will loose all by himself he ain't the brightest bulb in the string," a constituent wrote in August 2000.
A few weeks later Bush offered this cordial response: "Thank you for writing. I work about 80 hours a week in my capacity as governor. You are getting a days work for a days pay. In my limited spare time, I will work for my brother and other candidates that I believe in and the taxpayers won't pay a penny."
His diet and exercise habits:
Another person wrote to Bush in 2004 with the subject line, "obesity," inquiring whether he knew his body mass index (BMI), whether he worked out, the amount he could bench press, and his fruit and vegetable intake.
"I walk to work and back when in Tallahassee," Bush wrote. "I workout on the weekendsbut [sic] don't lift weights. I enjoy a fine fruit buit [sic] draw the line with brocoli, [sic]" Jeb wrote. In a preface he wrote to the email, he explained that "there is no daylight between" himself and his father on vegetables. The elder Bush also hated broccoli.
Golf - and how reporters spent their time:
St. Petersburg Times reporter Howard Troxler got a mild rebuke from Bush when he inquired about his golf handicap.
"High or low 80s? No mulligans, one per side, or none? Didn't you just start playing a couple of years ago?" Troxler wrote in July 2000.
"I am a 10 handicap. Low 80s and high 80s," Bush responded. "I started playing in earnest about 12 years ago. Jeez, I think I am going to launch an initiative so that idle SPTimes reporters get back to work and stop writing about golf."