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You are here: Home / JEB! Has A Book to Sell

JEB! Has A Book to Sell

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And, it is suspected, a bunch of xenophobic Iowa 2016 primary voters to court. Per Benjy Sarlin at TPM:

After years of building a reputation as the “good” Republican on immigration, Jeb Bush shocked the reform community on Monday by ruling out a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a position solidly to the right of prominent GOPers like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).

The news stunned immigration activists and aides working on a bill and who have long insisted that anything short of citizenship is a dealbreaker for reform — especially given that Bush was decisively in the pro-citizenship camp just months ago. It also was a head scratcher for political observers, giving Bush an unexpected opening in 2016 to attack not only Rubio, but several possible presidential candidates, as overly liberal on immigration reform…

Other reform activists expressed their puzzlement at Bush’s 180-degree turn, which also put him to the right of his brother, former President George W. Bush, who backed a path to citizenship as part of his failed 2006-2007 effort to pass a bipartisan reform bill. Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, pointed out the reversal even put Jeb Bush to the right of Sean Hannity, one of several prominent conservatives who have come out for citizenship since the 2012 election….


But isn’t Jeb Bush married to a Mexican? ask the innocents. Yeah, well, Columba Garnica Gallo earned her American citizenship the hard traditional way — by soliciting the protection of a white American man with a powerful family. IOKIYAR!

It’s too godsdamned soon to put up an Election 2016 category, but I guess the Repubs would rather talk about anything other than the way they’ve eviscerated their precious “brand”.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Harry Reid is having a fine old time with this:

    “Let’s wait for a few months to see how Jeb Bush changes his mind again,” Reid told reporters. He said Bush is “not evolving, he’s devolving” on immigration. “He keeps going backwards.”
    The Democratic leader said the former Florida governor has made “a fool of himself.”
    “Frankly, on this issue, I don’t think Jeb Bush is the Florida leader,” Reid said. “I think Marco Rubio is.”

    That’s why I cut Harry some slack. There aren’t many Dems in that musty attic of self-importance who would say that.

    ETA: I followed a twitter chain into a right-wing swamp, and based on that admittedly tiny sample, Jebbie is not real popular with the fire-breathers

  6. 6.

    Turgidson

    Apparently Team Willard is butthurt about this too, which only adds to the laughs.

  7. 7.

    Schlemizel

    L’il Jebbie ran for Gov while we lived in Florida. He ran the worst campaign in modern history. How bad? He selected a running mate who was on the record making anti-Cuban and anti-Jewish statements. In Florida!

    After getting his ass kicked hard in the election the GOP made several public comments about how L’il Jebbie was the slow one of the Bush family. If Boy Blunder is the yard stick and he is short of that he must need instructions on how to breath. In no way should this ass clown be allowed anywhere near any public office ever.

  8. 8.

    Bort

    This is just stunning news. How are we to proceed on immigration reform if some Republican ex office holder selling a book isn’t on board with this? Won’t someone think of the children?

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cathyx: Bush lore has it that going to Rice instead of Yale, then moving to Florida to exploit family connections to make money in shady business deals, in stead of doing it in Texas or the north east like his brothers, were considered acts of independence, if not rebellion. Also, I can’t imagine Big Bad Bar, much less Poppy’s very patrician parents, would have approved if the young lady didn’t come from a “good” family.

  12. 12.

    Patricia Kayden

    Lou Dobbs, with all his xenophobia (including claiming that illegal immigrants brought leprosy in the US), is also married to a Latino. Means nothing.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    instead of the usual marketing lunchbox associated with the major motion picture adaptation of this bestseller, methinks I’ll just wait for the musical.. featuring these songs by that famous songwriting team of Malkin and Cain….

    IOKIYAR
    Sitting by the dock of the bay of Pigs
    Song Sung Brown
    I Bought the Court and I won
    Living in the Shadows of Dumb
    Since I don’t have Jew
    Pick a Bale of Cotton Eyed Joe

  15. 15.

    gocart mozart

    We will know he is running when he comes out in favor of deporting his wife and kids to Mexico.

  16. 16.

    Chris

    @cathyx:

    Wasn’t outreach to the Mexican community a hallmark of his brother’s governorship? One of the biggest differences between the party then and the party now…

  17. 17.

    MattF

    See, libruls think that policy has something to do with what you actually believe. Silly wabbits!

  18. 18.

    General Stuck

    Even Jeb is feeling the demographic dogs nipping at the GOP heels. And he, like others, are making a calculation for what a path to citizenship for 13 million new voters will mean to the future of his party and its philosophy.

    I suspect, after the shock of 2012 wears off, the wingnuts will start telling themselves it will be different next time, and all they have to do is talk a little nicer to Hispanics but not do anything of substance for them.

    I think Jeb is one of the brighter bulbs on that side of things, and for reasons likely both to do with keeping his options open for a Potus run in 2016, and also that even if the goopers played with dems and provided true comprehensive immigration reform, with a pathway to citizenship, it will still be a net loser for them. They may be right in the shorter run, and that is all they can see right now.

    It is likely going to take a few more drubbings for the wingnuts to change for real, even a little. I don’t have high hopes for true immigration reform at this time, unfortunately for the hard working Hispanic community in this country.

  20. 20.

    AA+ Bonds

    Anyone else getting pushed this “FEMA coffins revealed” advertisement through WordPress? Because it really made my night.

  21. 21.

    bemused

    My, my, this has been an interesting two days…Acorn, Paul Ryan Medicare voucher age climbing up, Jeb’s flip-flop-flip, no divorce for you bill. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. I just wonder what the Republicans will bring in the rest of the week. It’s like driving by one car wreck after another.

  22. 22.

    gocart mozart

    Sitting by the dock of the bay of Pigs
    Song Sung Brown
    I Bought the Court and I won
    Living in the Shadows of Dumb
    Since I don’t have Jew
    Pick a Bale of Cotton Eyed Joe

    Also,
    There Must Be 50 Ways to Screw-Over Another
    It’s the End of the World as We Know It, But I Feel Raptured

  23. 23.

    Keith G

    TPM has an interesting headline bit up right now over this.

    And it seems he wants to cover all his bases by muddying the waters as much as possible.

    Earlier Tuesday, Bush told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that he could be open to a path to citizenship if he became convinced it wouldn’t encourage another wave of illegal immigration.

  25. 25.

    zoot

    what? why the surprise? NOTHING’s change:

    “Bush” (as in the Bush family) means whore.

  26. 26.

    AA+ Bonds

    A little Jacobin in your liberalism for the night, as Maisano plumbs “The Soul of Student Debt” (emphasis added):

    In other cases where they have denied discharge, judges have directed dance teachers to seek better-paying work in other, often unrelated fields; reproached workers for leaving higher-paying jobs for lower-paying ones, whatever the reason; and, in one case, advised the pastor of a small, financially insecure church to close it and do something more profitable with his time. Unsurprisingly, many student loan debtors desperate enough to seek relief through the courts work in public sector professions. In an extensive 2005 empirical study of undue hardship cases, Emory University law professor Rafael Pardo and Tulane University mathematician Michelle Lacey found that a disproportionate number of plaintiffs worked in education, training, and library occupations. In today’s enterprise society, becoming a teacher or a librarian just isn’t a wise investment.

  28. 28.

    I am not a kook

    Yeah, well, Columba Garnica Gallo earned her American citizenship the hard traditional way — by soliciting the protection of a white American man with a powerful family. IOKIYAR!

    Err, what? Are you against giving green cards and citizenship to people who marry Americans now? Or just if they marry Republicans? Snark overflow?

    There are already laws and regulations for immigration and lots of people have used them to move here. Many – even most – of them got married to Americans without “soliciting the protection” in some sordid way you are implying.

    The current debate is mostly about people in the country already without a legal status and how to bring them out of the shadows.

    I don’t agree with any Bushes about anything as far as I can tell, but marrying a foreign national doesn’t mean Jeb! shouldn’t talk about immigration.

  30. 30.

    AA+ Bonds

    @I am not a kook:

    I don’t agree with any Bushes about anything as far as I can tell, but marrying a foreign national doesn’t mean Jeb! shouldn’t talk about immigration.

    It just makes him look like a fucking hypocrite is all.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @AA+ Bonds:

    It just makes him look like a fucking hypocrite is all.

    So he blends in with the Republican herd a bit better. If the (R) after his name doesn’t tell you he’s a hypocrite, you haven’t been paying attention.

  33. 33.

    I am not a kook

    @AA+ Bonds: Why? Please explain how talking about immigration policy while being married to a foreign national is hypocritical? Show your work.

    How many degrees of separation to an immigrant does an American need to not be a hypocrite?

  36. 36.

    I am not a kook

    @David in NY: Not even many Republicans would consider children of a native-born American citizen and a naturalized American citizen who were born in the US to be “anchor babies”. Why do you?

    No wonder nothing can get done about immigration in this country when even blogressives can’t keep the concepts clear without dipping into some dank broad brush immigrant bashing – all the way to the next generation.

  37. 37.

    Hal

    So I’m guessing Jeb thinks that being for a path to citizenship is a losing issue for a 2016 Republican? It really doesn’t matter since Jeb himself is also a losing issue, but it’s fascinating to watch someone go in the exact opposite direction to a winning strategy.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @I am not a kook:

    Not even many Republicans would consider children of a native-born American citizen and a naturalized American citizen who were born in the US to be “anchor babies”.

    They would if the children in question were Democrats. That’s the really maddening thing about the “birther” craziness — it’s basically opened up the way to question the citizenship of anyone who’s inconvenient to the right wing.

  39. 39.

    pkdz

    @bemused: Here in Wisconsin, Governor Walker wants to free rent to own businesses from the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Act.

    “The proposal promises to re-ignite a fight percolating for more than 20 years between the industry and advocates for the poor in Wisconsin. Rent-to-own businesses insist their contracts aren’t credit transactions and the state’s consumer act shouldn’t apply to them. Opponents contend the businesses prey on the poor and charge exorbitant interest rates similar to payday lenders; they maintain people deserve to see exactly what they’re paying for when they sign rent-to-own contracts. Even some of Walker’s fellow Republicans are hedging on the budget language.”

  40. 40.

    JR

    The last time Jeb! had to pick a Secretary of State, he went with Katherine Harris. God, I hope he doesn’t run for President.

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