President Obama’s decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba undermines America’s credibility: https://t.co/Gg2m6T4oku.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 17, 2014
Jeb to the President: MY PARADE, STOP RAINING ON IT!!!…
And it’s not like there weren’t plenty of Republicans ready to shiv “the Smart Bush Brother”. Bloomberg Politics looks to be a rich source for quotes — here’s Dave Weigel, explaining why “The right is not ready for Jeb“:
… A little more than a week ago, in a profile of his For America organization, [Media Research Center’s Brent] Bozell told National Journal‘s Shane Goldmacher and Tim Alberta that “if Jeb Bush gets religion on deficit spending and champions a real deficit reduction program, we’re going to promote Jeb Bush,” but “not for president.” Bozell knows where conservative sentiment is, and it’s not with the Bushes. It’s not with anyone seen to support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, not with anyone who has defended Common Core, which in 2013 and 2014 became a litmus test on the right…
There’s a lot of discussion, when Hillary Clinton’s name comes up, about whether the Left actually wants her to return—whether it trusts her. The bitterness and doubts about her are a figment of a shadow of what exists on the right when it comes to Jeb Bush.
Michael C. Bender, “Can Florida’s former governor appease the new right wing of his party?“:
… In Iowa—the first state to hold a presidential nominating contest—just 2 percent of caucusgoer respondents aligned with the Tea Party (and 4 percent in all) say Bush would be their first choice, according to a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll in October. Sixty percent of moderate Iowa Republicans say they have a favorable view of Bush, second only to the 72 percent favorable rating for Representative Paul Ryan, according to the poll.
“I don’t think we need another Bush, period,” Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican and one of the most conservative members of the chamber, told reporters Tuesday…
There’s a certain irony to Bush’s clash with his party’s activist base. His conservative successes as governor made it more likely that Tea Party candidates would be competitive in Florida, where the movement has had some of its biggest victories, North Florida political science professor Matthew Corrigan writes in his new book, Conservative Hurricane: How Jeb Bush Remade Florida. Bush helped launch the political career of Senator Marco Rubio, who was perhaps the Tea Party movement’s top triumph in 2010, and has raised money for Tea Party governors, including Maine’s Paul LePage…
Bush banned partial-birth abortion and required parental notification before terminating some pregnancies. He outsourced the state foster care and adoption functions and signed the National Rifle Association’s first stand-your-ground law allowing deadly force in self-defense. Mother Teresa’s attorney advised him in end-of-life issues and, in a 2003 showdown with the state court system that received national attention, he pushed for a law to reinsert feeding tubes for Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged St. Petersburg woman….
“Most of us believe in less federal government and more decentralized government, particularly with education,” Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican eyeing his own presidential campaign, said Tuesday on Fox News. “For Jeb Bush to run in the primary will be very, very difficult. Because if you’re going to be for a national curriculum and for Common Core and for No Child Left Behind—this accumulation of power in Washington—that’s not very popular.”…
Fortunate Son Rand to Fortunate Son Jeb: Yeah, but what have you done for us LATELY?
Last week, Joshua Green & Miles Weiss, “Jeb Bush Has A Mit Romney Problem“:
… Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 27 list Bush as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation, which raised $61 million in September, largely from foreign investors. In November the fund incorporated in the United Kingdom and Wales—a structure, several independent finance lawyers say, that operates like a tax haven by allowing overseas investors to avoid U.S. taxes and regulations. BH Global Aviation is one of at least three such funds Bush has launched in less than two years through his Coral Gables, Fla., company, Britton Hill Holdings…
“Running as the second coming of Mitt Romney is not a credential that’s going to play anywhere, with Republicans or Democrats,” says John Brabender, a Republican consultant and veteran of presidential campaigns….
Sean Hannity and Allen West were actively exploring hating Jeb Bush on #FoxNews tonight.
— Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger) December 17, 2014
The last Bush exploratory committee was looking for WMD in Iraq.
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) December 16, 2014
Is Jeb Bush the #NextScottBrown?
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 16, 2014
Prediction: Jeb Bush will be a somewhat more successful Jon Huntsman if he runs. http://t.co/XEC7lyu9yH
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) December 12, 2014
***********
Apart from enjoying the spectacle as our enemies turn on each other, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
KG
ok, so i just clicked through to Jeb’s facebook post… i have some follow up questions for the former governor:
1. if having diplomatic (and economic) relationships are bad, does that mean you would, as president, end diplomatic relationships with China, Vietnam, and other nations that are dictatorships?
2. how are we supposed to “foster efforts” to create a democracy in Cuba if you don’t have a political presence in Cuba?
3. what about the 53 other political prisoners that Cuba has agreed to release because of this deal? Is that not a worthwhile end?
4. has the embargo and lack of formal diplomatic relations helped bring democracy to Cuba in the last 50 years? if not, then why should we continue with that policy?
Suffern ACE
On the plus side, relations with North Korea didn’t actually get much worse than they were before.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Sewing and more sewing. The Frozen fabric is being preshrunk and will be tomorrow’s focus. Tonight, finishing a snowflake batik gift bag so my husband can fill it with baked goodies.
I hate fusible fleece.
Laertes
You don’t win by having the most die-hards. You win by being everyone’s second choice. (cf. Romney, McCain)
Elmo
I am home, the dogs have mostly calmed down except for the Lab who is obsessively following me around to make sure I don’t leave again, I have a drink in my hand and a pizza on the way.
Life is good.
Baud
I have a sinus thing going on. I hope it’s a one-night event.
JPL
According to sources, Powell was considering a run in 2001, and someone linked a story about his wife taking anti-depressants. The link was a Republican source. Today Jeb has denied an affair with another woman. If true, a democrat would gain nothing by releasing it now.
just sayin
jl
” Prediction: Jeb Bush will be a somewhat more successful Jon Huntsman if he runs. ”
Will Jebmentum’s wife threaten to leave him if he says dumb and hateful stuff on the national TV?
Betty Cracker
God, I picked the wrong fucking day to watch Tweety. He’s bewailing Castro’s betrayal of his (Tweety’s) youthful idealism. Also, a Republican hack who helped steal the 2000 election for Bush-Cheney is angrily demanding that the Castro Bros. be brought to justice. I don’t know why the FSM doesn’t smite them to ashes.
Kay
I just don’t believe it. I heard the same thing about McCain and then Romney.
His poll numbers are really unimpressive but I don’t know if I would attribute that to immigration or the Common Core. I know the Right doesn’t like the Common Core but that’s really niche. It’s a small percentage of the group of far Right voters who also currently have their kids in public schools. He’d do the same thing Romney did. He’d buy the primary while hoping the rest of the field make asses of themselves.
It’s almost like they’re making excuses for why his poll numbers are so low and giving him a way to bow out before he gets in. I just don’t buy it. It feels like they floated him and are now having second thoughts.
beltane
@Betty Cracker: Did Tweety fight on behalf of Castro? How could Castro betray him. it’s not like he is Obama.
beltane
@JPL: Romney’s people were the ones leaking all the negative things about Sarah Palin in 2008, just as a way to spite John McCain. Maybe they are doing the same thing now.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker:
Is there ever a right day to watch Tweety? Seriously, what’s the point? He shouts a lot, reminisces about a Golden Age of politics that never actually existed, and that’s really about it.
raven
@dmsilev: He’s a fucking moron.
jl
@beltane: I speculate the Tweety got a tingle up his leg back in the day at handsome hunk pics of Fidel. Tweety is weird and cynically naive, and naively cynical, and strange
Baud
@raven:
He’s no Morning Joe!
Villago Delenda Est
Jeb is, like all members of the Bush Crime Family, a vile sack of shit.
Whine, you stupid motherfucker. Whine.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane: Romney’s people planted the gotcha question in Katie Couric’s brain?
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker:
FSM has better things to do with meatballs than use them to swat gnats.
raven
@Baud: He gave the Swiftboat assholes night after night and sucked their dicks because they were “the real deal” unlike his chicken shit little ass.
priscianus jr
This ain’t yer daddy’s Republican Party any more, Jeb!
Political Realism
Much like Elian Gonzalez in 2000, this move by BO ensures that Florida goes GOP in 2016, and specifically for Jeb Bush.
In the back of your minds you always knew this would happen. You could almost hear it like wind whistling through the trees-Jeeeeeeb Buuuuuush……Jeeeeeeeb Buuuuuuush…..his time has now come.
Clinton vs. Bush Round 2! I can’t wait!
Baud
@raven:
Tweety does seem overly impressed with caricatures.
Villago Delenda Est
@KG: Those are a lot of impertinent questions that Jeb will very calmly and in the typical patrician manner of the Bush Crime Family ignore.
Gin & Tonic
@Political Realism: You know, I didn’t miss you when you were gone.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elmo: A Lab at the knee. Doesn’t get any better than that. Unless it is a Lab in the lap. (I have a Lap Lab. If I sit on the couch, that is where he goes)
Political Realism
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Bush Crime Family”. Love it. Whine you little bitch, whine, just like you did when Bush won twice in the 2000s. Would you like a link to Gore’s concession speech too?
Villago Delenda Est
@Political Realism: UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH! UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!
President Romney thanks you for all your efforts here in 2012.
“Romney will win the Colorado primary. You can take that to the bank!”
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: Of course not. They didn’t care about Palin anyway. They were more interested in leaking the details of the “vetting” process that went on and in the internal rifts Palin caused in team McCain. They are all vipers, but Rmoney is really a piece of work.
Kay
Because we all saw how the Party activists took down Mitt Romney. Who actually now polls ahead of Bush.
Maybe Jeb Bush just doesn’t poll very well. Incredible as that sounds :)
Villago Delenda Est
@Political Realism: I’m not sure if I’d call an appointment by five unelected judges a “win” in 2000, nor would I call Diebold’s efforts to insure a pickup of Ohio in 2004 a “win”. More like a “theft”.
beltane
God help us, Cato is hearing the trees sing Jeb Bush’s praises. My trees are laughing at his trees.
Chopper
@Villago Delenda Est:
SHOCK POLL! Obama to lose CA? You heard it here first!
Baud
@Kay:
I wonder if it’s his style and mannerisms that keep his numbers down. He just doesn’t look like a good fit for today’s Republicans, regardless of his policies.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: No shit, I had to take the idiot out of the pie filter to remember. Bye bye douchebag.
lamh36
@dmsilev: and he’s a pig. I mean dude basically belches and spits and sound like he just at some gassy food cause he always sound like he has a bad case of indigestion all the time.
Laertes
@Political Realism:
Relax, guy. As crazy as it sounds when you line them up and take a good look at them, some Republican or other is certain to win the Republican nomination.
Political Realism
@Villago Delenda Est:
If it was a theft why didn’t you “take it to the STREETZ MAAAAN?”
beltane
@Baud: I think you’re on to something. If I didn’t know who Jeb Bush was, I’d think he was a pleasant enough, not-crazy Republican of the type I remember from my childhood. This is not the type of thing that appeals to the Republican base.
beltane
Why has Cato soured on Rmoney? He loved him back in 2012. So fickle, so disloyal.
Laertes
Walker can’t win the GOP nomination because he’s got zero charisma and a closet full of criminal skeletons. Perry can’t win because he’s too dumb and mean. Christie can’t win because he’s such an asshole that even Republicans can’t stand him. Rubio can’t win because of his humiliating failure/collapse on immigration reform. Huckabee can’t win because the moneycons don’t trust him and he doesn’t hate Mexicans enough. Bush can’t win because the socialcons don’t trust him, he doesn’t hate Mexicans enough, and the sound of his name makes children cry.
One of those sentences is wrong. Can’t wait to see which one. (My money’s on Perry. There’s no such thing as “too dumb” or “too mean” for the party of Reagan and W.)
raven
Oh turn him on quick, he’s going to explain how white people and black people think about race!!!!
Kay
@Baud:
George W Bush was a good politician. He really was. His supporters loved him. I don’t think Jebbie there inspires love. He always seems fussy, like his shirt collar is too tight.
The tip off to me is the Common Core. This is a GOP county and I don’t think I could fill my living room with Common Core opponents, and I’m involved in the public school “community”, whatever.
They’re hiding something if the claim is the Common Core is the death knell for Jeb Bush :)
He may be unpopular (well, IS unpopular) but that isn’t why.
Laertes
@Kay:
What’s up with that Common Core business? The VSPs all write about how this abstruse controversy sinks Bush, and I just can’t wrap my head around it. Where’s the evidence that anyone really gives a shit about this?
I don’t even understand what the issue is. All I can hear is whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargarble-united-nations. I get the vague idea that they’re angry that history books don’t have drawings of Jesus riding a dinosaur or something?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Political Realism:
You mean like when Republican operatives stormed the office where a recount was being done and forced it to shut down?
Why were you guys so terrified of letting the recount be completed that you insisted on suing to stop it rather than letting the recount happen?
Hal
This is a fresh pet advertisement, but one of the best videos I’ve seen all month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhg7Xm4FXAY
Archon
Big money of the country club, wall street type think they are a “reasonable” Republican nominee from winning in 2016 and having total control in Washington which means an exorbitant return on their investment into politics.
The bigwigs running the GOP will lie, cheat, and steal to make sure it’s Jeb or Mitt Romney again, you can bet your life savings on that.
Suffern ACE
@Betty Cracker: wow. Is Tweety pretending that he would have been a communist were it not for Fidel?
Baud
@Kay:
For all of his many, many faults, W did seem to be more able to establish a personal connection with folks.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@raven: And so transparent he bathes in Windex.
Laertes
@Baud:
Dude had real charisma. It didn’t work on me, but it wasn’t meant to. He had a gift for connecting to people on a gut level. The message wasn’t in the words themselves, garbled as they often were. It was always in the tone. Conservatives are like dogs in that respect–they respond to their owner’s tone, not to the words.
lamh36
@raven: gawd I saw that I couldn’t click it fast enough.
Yeah, I really need to hear what Tweety thinks Blacks and White believe…blah
lamh36
Well wow!
Denzel Blacklisted! Sony Execs Warned Not To Cast Washington In Big Flicks Because Black Leads ‘Don’t Play Well’ — Latest Shocking Email Leak
Violet
@Baud: True enough. Way more than Kerry and more than Gore as well.
@Laertes: I think a lot of people respond to tone. It’s like body language–it’s a huge part of communication.
raven
@lamh36: I just hit it for a second during the half of the game I’m watching.
Roger Moore
@Laertes:
They could all be right. After all, there are sure to be more candidates to come out of the woodwork. You could also argue that whichever one is finally nominated didn’t win the nomination so much as all the other candidates lost it.
JPL
@Roger Moore: I still think it’s Rand Paul
Laertes
@Roger Moore:
Could be, I guess, but that’s not really the way Republicans roll. They don’t go for the shiny new candidate that comes out of nowhere like Democrats do. I’m trying to remember a GOP nominee who hadn’t made some kind of attempt at least once before. Romney made it to Super Tuesday in 2008. McCain made it to Super Tuesday in 2000. Bush fils kind of came from nowhere, except that his dad had been President and so he started with huge name recognition.
Okay, Dole in 1996 got the nomination on his first try, but as a five-term Senator and a Finance Committee chair, he was already a big deal. Bush pere was a former VP and had run a strong campaign in 1980. Reagan was big in ’76 before taking the nomination in ’80. Nixon was a former VP. Eisenhower and Goldwater were both widely known when they ran.
So, sure. It could be someone not on my list. But the list of people not on my list wouldn’t be long: Cruz, Santorum…Jindal? I guess?
Kay
@Laertes:
It’s complicated and I like the liberal opponents so I won’t go into their thing (they have different objections) but it;s basically (to me) a misunderstanding by conservatives. They don’t like the policy so they attribute the problem to process -” it’s a violation of federalism!”- when maybe they just don’t like the policy. NCLB wasn’t bad because it was federal. It was bad because it was dumb.
I just don’t have patience with them and federalism anymore. I think they’re full of shit about it.
I personally am okay with the Common Core. I looked at it and I see what my 6th grader is doing and I’m not an opponent.
Their test scores are going to drop dramatically though, so if people use it to crow about how dumb kids are or use it to bash public schools I will be mad. Their scores will drop because it’s more difficult than what we had. They set the cut scores really high. I asked the principal here if he thought people knew that 70% of his scores were gonna drop quite dramatically and he smiled kind of painfully and said “no”. I feel bad for him. His work is rated on kids’ test scores and media coverage is so dumb it will be blaring headlines “70% fail test!” :)
PhilbertDesanex
@Baud: Probably was the booze
Bobby Thomson
@lamh36: Someone should tell Will Smith that black leads don’t sell. And I know the linked article says they are talking about audiences in other countries, but I still doubt that MIB and Independence Day tanked overseas.
Matt McIrvin
Isn’t Mitt Romney the second coming of Mitt Romney?
Bobby Thomson
@Laertes:
He was already a two-time loser (80 and 88).
Matt McIrvin
@Laertes: Dole was also Gerald Ford’s running mate in 1976 (VP Nelson Rockefeller had been kind of a placeholder).
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: My DIL teaches first grade and she says Common Core as it applies to primary school is fine with her. She says the teachers she hears object are the ones who used to let the kids play all day.
Obviously second hand info, but she’s sharp.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Kay:
One of my co-workers had a bit of a freakout because her son had what she thought was a low grade on reading. Turned out that he had (essentially) a 50 percent because the kids have only learned 50 percent of the curriculum so far. So that 50% score actually meant he was right on track, and even ahead of the other kids.
She was relieved once the teacher explained it, but it was really confusing since we were all raised on a totally different grading system.
SRW1
It looks like that active exploratomation is off to a bad start.
I’m having a hard time fighting that juvenile excitement of watching
an upcoming train wreck.
Kay
@Laertes:
Rand Paul is actually a good example of how they confuse bad policy with bad process. Rand Paul’s “education plan” is horrible. He wants to privatize the whole thing. It doesn’t matter at all if he opposes NCLB on federalism grounds. He can come up with an ideologically pure way to privatize and he’ll still be a nightmare on public education.
I don’t really have anything in common with people who think strict adherence to their view of the constitution magically makes their horrible ideas wonderful. I don’t know how or why they think that works.
As usual, he also hasn’t explained how he’d handle civil rights at the 50-different- states level. That didn’t work the last time we tried it his way. I don’t know what’s changed. More states?
Matt McIrvin
@Laertes: I think it could be Scott Walker. He has an impressive record of sticking it to Democrats and Democratic constituencies, which is what Republicans like. Just surviving a serious recall campaign was something.
greennotGreen
@Bobby Thomson: Yeah, I was about to defend Will Smith. Denzel Washington I can take or leave. I certainly have never disliked him in a movie, but Will Smith I adore, and I’m an old white lady.
lamh36
@Bobby Thomson: Exactly…the idea that you’d say no to denzel, who’s American box office is pretty darn good, cause of “other countries” is just ridiculous
greennotGreen
Re: Jeb and his crime family. Like George and Neil, he must be a sociopath, too. No matter who you are, no matter that you’re a different person from your brother, after your brother lied us into a war and tortured people, many of them innocent of any wrongdoing, shouldn’t you have the common courtesy to lie low the rest of your life? Or be willing to denounce your brother and his actions because you really are a different kind of person? But I don’t think Jeb feels the need to denounce because, like all sociopaths, other people do not matter to him.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@lamh36:
It apparently is A Thing in Asia that movies with Black leads are said not to do as well, and Asia is one of the few regions where movie attendance is actually growing.
I originally heard this about 10 years ago, though, so I’d be curious to know if there are recent marketing analyses in Asia still showing this or if Sony was still working off decade-old information.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: Samuel L Jackson movies seem to draw a pretty good audience as well.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
I think some of the criticisms are valid. It’s a huge job and they give them 5 different (often conflicting) “reforms” all at the same time. The Common Core ALONE is a huge job and one that would be difficult to do well, by any group of people. There’s a lack of discipline in ed reform, an inability to say “no, they have enough on their plate, let’s do one thing well instead of 500 things half-ass”. To me, the True Believers in ed reform are reckless and needlessly combative. I don’t think I’m temperamentally suited to their approach.
I (obviously) sympathize with the dissenters :)
I think Duncan is a disaster. Petty, egotistical, rigid, disrespectful, both patronizing and not that smart (always a great combo!). He’s my idea of a really bad boss. It would be a lot easier if he wasn’t such an asshole, quite frankly.
Cervantes
@KG:
Have you heard the news about Rajiv Shah?
PaulW
Dunno if anyone else mentioned it yet, but there’s a LOT of bitter anger from the Democrats I know about how Jeb “stole” the 2000 election for his bro Dubya.
Presidential politics in particular is less about the issues and more about the emotional. A lot of people on the left (and a good number of moderates who sided with Gore in 2000) are gonna want payback on Jeb if his name ends up on the ballot. Even if he campaigns on a platform of puppies and ice cream, there’s a lot of hate there to start off and it’s all downhill from there.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
Ed reform is as much a political coalition as it is a set of policies. There’s different factions. There’s the “choice!” people and the “accountability!” (testing) freaks and the “we hate labor unions” gang and the “tech will revolutionize!” group and the Common Core promoters and the problem is no one ever says “no, you can’t ALL have everything you demand all at the same time in public schools”.
No one ever tells a fellow member of the club “no, we’re not doing your personal favorite experiment or theory or brilliant idea. Enough”. They just pile one on top of the other: third grade reading guarantee and vo-tech and teacher rankings and letter grades for schools and vouchers and charters and Common Core and on and on. Responsible adults should rein themselves in, set priorities, focus. Public school kids aren’t some captive experimental population that everyone in the DC policy club gets to play around with.
Violet
@lamh36:
It’s not necessarily wrong. It depends on the movie, but the action movies and the comic book movies make most of their money overseas. They’ve been considering overseas revenue in casting decisions and other decisions for years.
I love Denzel and I don’t think the guy is right in his assessment, but saying the impact of choices on overseas revenues isn’t taken into consideration is wrong.
Kay
@PaulW:
Good point. Clinton should play Bush v Gore tape. We never see that, BTW. Why don’t we ever walk down that memory lane? I wanna see that Florida Sec of State again.
Laertes
@Bobby Thomson: @Matt McIrvin:
Thanks very much, guys. I’d entirely forgotten about all that.
@Matt McIrvin:
Could be? If I’m wrong about Perry, then I’d expect it’s Walker instead. I’m picking Perry because Walker’s got this “uptight yankee” vibe and doesn’t look the part. Perry has executive hair and that mean-dumb swagger that worked like magic for Dubya. I think Walker connects with the Republican brain, but Perry connects with the shriveled, coal-black Republican heart.