http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...usive-wife.html

I don't give a damn if you got cash and want to blow it, but taking out massive loans for items that are usually marked up well past recouping if you have to resell is insane. I also think lying to customs is extremely troubling if you are in the publics eye...

Zitat

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Potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's wife Columba has very expensive taste when it comes to jewelry - taking out loans to buy $90,000 worth of jewelry over a 14-year period.

State filings show Columba Bush, 61, the wife of the former Florida Governor, owns several Rolex watches and a pair of $25,000 diamond earrings.

In 1999 she was fined for misrepresenting the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a shopping trip in Paris by federal customs officials.

Husband Jeb Bush, 62, said at the time she misled customs because she did not want him to know that she had spent $19,000 on the trip.

But less than a year later she took out a loan to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day, according to records filed with the state of Florida by Mayors Jewelers, and seen by the Washington Post.

Mrs Bush took out the loans to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from the South Florida store over a 14-year period.

Documents available online shows that she spent a total of more than $90,000 at the store.

Uniform Commercial Code forms filed by the store with the Florida secretary of state's office on May 3, 2000, indicate that Mayors arranged a loan under which Columba Bush bought four items.

They were a $25,600 pair of diamond stud earrings set in platinum; a $10,500 18-karat white-gold and diamond bracelet by Bulgari; an 18-karat white-gold and diamond necklace, which cost $3,200; and another pair of diamond earrings, for $3,300.

The paper reports that this was one of at least five such loans made by the store to Columba Bush between 1995 and 2009.

In 1997 she bought a Roman coin necklace for $15,000 and a $16,600 Rolex watch studded with diamonds.

The most recent loan was to pay for an $11,700 Rolex watch and a $5,900 pair of earrings.

Jeb Bush's political team insisted that her tastes and shopping habits are not an issue.

'Mrs. Bush bought jewelry from time to time from Mayors Jewelers over the years,' Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell told the Washington Post.

'Though not required to be reported, these purchases in 2000 were included as accounts payable on Governor Bush's financial disclosure that year, and paid off the next.'

Campbell also said that the governor was 'aware she made purchases from time to time.'

Mayors spokesman Francis Guindon declined to comment and said the store keeps its clients' information confidential.

If her husband successfully runs for president, Mrs Bush would be the third Mrs Bush in the White House - but she would also be the first Hispanic first lady, and only the second first lady born outside of the United States.

She has kept herself out of the limelight since he announced his plan to run, as she has throughout his political career.

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Note the first incident occurred 16 years ago, the second 18. Just another hit piece on a Republican.

When are these media mavens going to going to broadcast widely and clearly how much taxpayer money Moose spends on her frequent vacations?