More than an hour into a solemn ceremony naming Rep. Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, as the 2007-08 House Speaker, Gov. Jeb Bush stepped to the podium in the House chamber last week and told a short story about "unleashing Chang," his "mystical warrior" friend.Peep this:
Here are Bush's words, spoken before hundreds of lawmakers and politicians: "Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society.
"I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down."
Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift.
"I'm going to bestow on you the sword of a great conservative warrior," he said, as the crowd roared.
The crowd, however, could be excused for not understanding Bush's enigmatic foray into the realm of Eastern mysticism.
We're here to help.
And this:
In a 1989 Washington Post article on the politics of tennis, former President George H.W. Bush was quoted as threatening to "unleash Chang" as a means of intimidating other players.The saying was apparently quite popular with Gov. Bush's father, and referred to a legendary warrior named Chang who was called upon to settle political disputes in Chinese dynasties of yore.
I tried to find some way to debunk this but failed. It is the Sarasota newspaper after all, not The Onion.