Jeb! Sends Lawyers After Deb! for Using Exclamation Point

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Jeb! implores the almighty to protect U.S. Trade Mark Registration No. 2,826,942

If anyone thought there were issues too petty for a former governor to unleash his lawyers over, Jeb Bush’s most recent actions should put such ideas to rest.

Even Florida’s most jaded political observers — including the Republican ones — are shaking their heads now.

Not only does Bush want Florida Senate District 8 candidate Deborah Gianoulis (D) to stop using her nickname in campaign materials, she is not to use the exclamation point, the colors red and white, or the letters “e” and “b.”

I’m serious.

Attorney Wiley Horton with the Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell & Dunbar firm sent a “cease and desist” letter to the Gianoulis campaign telling her to drop the red-and-white logo.

Gianoulis is challenging Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who doubles as the state’s Republican Party chairman.

“You appear to be using the same font and color scheme as has been used by the lawful owner … for at least the past 16 years,” Horton said in his letter.

‘…Some in Tallahassee finally have…gotten around to tackling the issues that I’m sure you and your neighbors have been talking about: fonts and punctuation.’

Setting aside the fact that Gianoulis decided on her own, in June, before the primary, after using it for all of about two days, to discontinue the reference, Bush chose now to show he’s still an arrogant asshole. And even though Gianoulis, a former Jacksonville news anchor, is overtaking Jeb!’s buddy Thrasher in polls, the move seems heavy-handed to just about everyone including one local columnist.

After months full of absurdity on the campaign trail, some in Tallahassee finally have cut through the mudslinging and gotten around to tackling the issues that I’m sure you and your neighbors have been talking about.

Fonts and punctuation.

…The fonts are not the same. But two of the letters in the names are. And while that still isn’t as close as some names — Wiley Horton and Willie Horton, for instance —it does mean that six-time Gate River Run champion Mebrahtom “Meb” Keflezighi should consider himself forewarned.

If he ever wants to run for office, he better pick his punctuation very carefully.

The Gianoulis folks made great use of the Jeb!-supplied talking point.

“Since John Thrasher is the ultimate Tallahassee career politician and insider, it’s not surprising that he recruited some of the most powerful lobbyists in Tallahassee to cynically threaten legal action against a woman for using her own nickname in a campaign,” said John Daigle with the Gianoulis campaign.

I’m betting it will take a long time for the bombastic Bush to live this one down.

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One thought on “Jeb! Sends Lawyers After Deb! for Using Exclamation Point”

  1. How Pathetic for John Ellis Bush whats so bad is he’s the one hiding from his own Name but then again why would’nt he!

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