Reevaluating Jackie Bueno Sousa

Last time we checked in with The Herald's new right-leaning columnist Jackie Bueno Sousa she had caused a minor brouhaha in the blogosphere with her weird inaugural column and the appropriation of a silly monologue from Bull Durham. Now the former editor of The Daily Business Review is four columns into her Herald gig, and she's turned out to be far from the conservative hell demon some had feared/hoped for. Though, her writing isn't really aiming to illicit much passion and since her admission that she believes, "that history will redeem George W. Bush; that life begins after conception but before birth" she's steered clear of partisan issues. What she does seem to do repeatedly is miss the point.

Her column today reminds us all that anyone with CEO on their business card is in fact not the product of an illicit steamy, coked-up affair between their whore mother and Satan himself. An afront to the hot, new, misguided anti-Fat Cat populism sweeping the land. Sousa is a bit off though, as I think Americans are more angry at the super-CEO, the Wall Street fat cats, the baking honchos, and  the international mega-corp leaders who recklessly lead our economy into ruin and, judging from the results of the last election, the political party more readily identifiable with deregulation. And not the CEO of, say, Dale's Discount Shoes for Large Sized Women. Still though, the sentiment is needed, just as much as we need to remind the Rick Santelli's of the world not to blame the "loser homeowners" of the country.


Last week she tried to argue that a new stadium for the Marlins would not stimulate the economy in the long run. While the real economic question most are arguing over is whether building a multi-million dollar mega-complex in Little Haiti would help stimulate the economy in the short term, and whether that's indeed worth it.

The week before that was a piece arguing for the need to stem outrageous multi-million dollar jury awards to people suing tobacco companies. Which, I really can't argue with. One out of four isn't bad.

So there we have it. She's not Ann Coulter long lost Cuban half sister (Leonard Pitts would have likely quit in protest if she was), but rather a sensible right leaning, business friendly columnist. Sometimes she seems to be missing the point, and her columns aren't really lightning rods and lack bite. But give it time, she's only four columns in, and she might be turn out to be the sensible conservative voice this town needs.