February 10 - A Conservative Jeb Bush Now Appears to Be Moderate; Brinksmanship between Greece and Its Troika of Creditors; Judicial Confusion in Alabama on Same-Sex Marriage

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the release of a new book and a data dump of emails by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who is running for president in 2016 and has called himself the first “eGovernor” because of the prolific use of his Blackberry. Joining us is Matthew Corrigan, Chair and Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Florida who is the author of the new book just out, “Conservative Hurricane: How Jeb Bush Remade Florida”. We will discuss Jeb Bush’s record as a hardline conservative which belies his latest public persona as a more moderate Republican, which ironically will help him in a general election but hurt him in the Republican primaries where polling of likely caucus-goers indicates Bush is considered too moderate by 37% in Iowa and 41% in New Hampshire.

Part 2

Then we examine the brinksmanship going on between Greece and the so-called troika of creditors; The European Commission, the ECB and the IMF, with senior officials in the just-elected Greek government who are saying they might look elsewhere to Russia and China for economic support as Greece’s new finance minister warns that the eurozone is a house of cards that a Greek exit from the euro could collapse. Economist Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins us to discuss what options Greece has and his article at Al Jazeera “Greece Needs an Exit Option”.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Carl Tobias, Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Richmond who has tracked same-sex marriage across the country. We look into the legal see-saw going on in Alabama with the state’s Chief Justice Roy Moore ordering probate judges in all 67 counties not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of Monday’s 7-2 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court to let a federal judge’s order striking down the state’s same-sex marriage ban take effect, causing confusion that has already led to the arrest of a female minister on the grounds of disorderly conduct for trying to perform a same-sex marriage in a judge’s office.