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won’t bring up either. He resigned from the board in December, 
but not before making $298,500 in cash and stocks in 2013 according to filings with the U.S. Stock Exchange, during a time when the hospital was profiting greatly from Obamacare measures. That’s the only reason he resigned.
He’ll thank a bunch of people for getting him to where he is, announcing his bid for the highest office in the land.
But don’t expect him to thank Leonel Martinez, a convicted drug trafficker and home builder who contributed more than $12,000 to the Bush campaigns between 1984 and 1987. When federal agents went through his things, they found a photo of Martinez with then president George W. Bush — which is likely something that wouldn’t have happened without his baby brother,then the GOP chair of the Miami-Dade Republican Party. To be fair, Martinez took pictures with a bunch of electeds, including former Miami-Dade State Attorney Janet Reno. But we don’t know who got him all that access.
Don’t expect a nod to or mention of Miguel Recarey, the
U.S. fugitive from medicare fraud charges who he helped get millions in federal funds for. Bush was reportedly paid $75,000 to find International Medical Centers a location in Miami. Yeah, sure, because that is the typical location scout fee. More likely, he was paid to lobby the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to get Recarey’s company a waiver on Medicaid regulations and access to at least $34 million more at a time when the administration was considering suspending the HMO because of complaints. Bush has said he made just one phone call — as the then vice president’s son. But D.C. insiders and the transcripts of congressional hearings say there were multiple calls — and that they were successful.
Recarey is living the fat cat life in Spain after fleeing U.S. justice. Roger Stone, a veteran GOP strategist who became a Libertarian author and could be running for the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio in his own pursuit of the White House, tweeted recently that Jeb even provided Mike the private jet to flee in and told Ladra Sunday that even the limo to the airport. Ladra has not been able to confirm that, and it would likely be impossible to prove. Or disprove.
But here’s what we do know. Bush — 
who worked for Recarey even after he did jail time for tax evasion in the 70s and even though he boasted of connections to the “Cuban mafia” — is, at best, a conman’s fool with terrible character judgement or, at worst, not too discerning when it comes to his business associates.
Take his first gig after leaving the guv’s seat, as a consultant for a company called InnoVida for $15,000 a month plus “reasonable expenses,” whatever that means. He was there for three years but somehow he didn’t know that the company’s owners were committing wire fraud and money laundering, for which two were convicted in federal court. Bush gave back $270,00 of the $469,000 he was paid for consulting between 2007 and 2010. But if that’s such a grand gesture, why doesn’t he bring it up Monday?
While the media has been quick to judge
Rubio on his driving habits, his personal finances and his loyal, longtime friendship with former Congressman David Rivera — a lawmaker who is endlessly under investigation with whom he served in the Florida House and owned a home in Tallahassee that was foreclosed on and that they recently sold for an $18,000 loss — Jeb Bush has been sort of given a pass by much of the press, particularly in South Florida, where he is all but royalty. A sacred cow, so to speak.
Jeb Bush enters the race Monday as a media darling. But Ladra thinks that, as the months tick off, the media will be less, um, gentle in peeling back the onion.
After all, cozying up to people who defraud the government and making millions off them while selling yourself as un Pepito tipico seems worse than a couple of traffic tickets.
And we know he’s not going to talk about it.
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