Since leaving office, Gov. Jeb Bush has had little to say about how
Charlie Crist is running the enterprise of Florida.

Not anymore.

Addressing a convention of insurance company executives Monday in
Texas, the former Republican governor spoke harshly about efforts at
insurance reform, both nationally and here in Florida.

"We don't really have aninsurance problem; we have a natural
catastrophe problem," Bush is quoted by Advisen Front Page News, a trade
organization covering the National Association of Mutual Insurance
Companies meeting.

Bush in his own term favored private market remedies and even toyed
with outsourcing and therefore spreading the state's hurricane risk, by
selling catastrophe bonds to the financial markets. Crist has taken the
opposite approach, putting the state in direct competition with private
insurers and reinsurers as well and in the process internalizing most of
Florida's hurricane threat.

In his keynote speech to NAMIC, Bush complained some states are
"offering solutions that are as bad as the natural disasters themselves."

"My beloved state of Florida has taken steps along that path," he
added, noting "when the government assuems the risk of these
catastrophic events, they are putting at risk the livelihoods and
quality of life of the taxpayers and citizens they serve."

Bush put in a plug for two former House insurance chairmen who have
been censured for publicly opposing Crist's efforts, Dennis Ross and Don
Brown. NAMIC on Monday gave Brown its award as the top state legislator
of the year.