Also, WashPost: The Jeb emails we want to see concern the Nov-Dec 2000 presidential "long count." Do any exist? Are they available?
— Timothy Noah (@TimothyNoah1) December 24, 2014
Just before Xmas, the Washington Post obtained early copies of the emails Jeb Bush planned to release from his 1999-2007 gubernatorial tenure:
… Bush has cast his decision to publicly release his electronic correspondence next month as part of his commitment to being “totally transparent” as he mulls whether to run for president…
… [A]ll the e-mails Bush will release have long been available through a records request to the Florida Department of State. What’s more, the former governor is expected to release only documents already required to be made available under state law, which allows exemptions for legal communications and personnel matters, among others… And the e-mails that he will release show a somewhat filtered version of operations within his administration, in part because Bush was keenly aware that his correspondence could one day become public…
Even the heavily groomed emails have already provided some useful oppo-research leads, per Annie Linskey at Bloomberg Politics:
Republican donor Ric Cooper had a straight line to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and days after Hurricane Katrina used the access to help secure a $236 million deal that Democrats later called a “boondoggle contract,” according to a trove of e-mails released last week by the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge…
(First?) Sign @JebBush understands modern media environment: trickling announcements that he’s quitting corp boards for max press coverage
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 1, 2015
Yesterday, Jeb — or his handlers — took the next step. Per Charles Ellison, the new blogger at the Washington Monthly:
In a blow-the-spot-up signal that he’s definitely got his eye on the Republican presidential nomination for 2016, the son and brother of Bush Presidents I and II respectively quit every private and non-profit board he currently sits on.
No major politician gives up that kind of prestige and cheddar unless he or she is about to press on with a full-time career in campaigning. The move gives him the elbow space he’ll need to build a presidential exploratory machine. And with a packed GOP nomination field already taking shape, kicking it off at the top of 2015 should offer some head start in the race to lock donors, advisers, staff, etc…
The resignations became effective December 31st, thereby giving him some clean slate in 2015 and enough time between now & the official start of the Republican primaries for voters to forget about it….
If Daniel Larison, at the American Conservative, is any indicator, the not-stupid not-dishonest portion of the GOP base may not be entirely Ready for Jeb:
…[M]ost conservatives aren’t interested in reviving a “compassionate” conservative agenda… they regard most of that agenda with suspicion and even loathing… In fairness, Jeb Bush was a fairly conventional Republican for the mid-2000s. His political problem is that the GOP and the country have changed enough in the last ten years that his pro-corporate “centrism” and pro-immigration views separate him from most of his party to a much greater degree now than they would have when his brother was still president. Being the preferred candidate of corporate America might have been considered a very large advantage before 2008, but now it is a much greater liability than it used to be… It is also a reminder that Bush’s long time away from retail politics has left him mostly oblivious to the changes that have taken place since he left office, and that is why he seems even more out of step with the rest of the GOP than one would assume just by listing the differences he has on policy…
Perhaps Jeb’s best bet would be to follow Andy Borowitz’s (satirical) advice: “Jeb Bush Resigns as George W. Bush’s Brother“.
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Apart from the recurrent herpes-like eruption of the Bush Crime Clan, what’s on the agenda for the first Friday of 2015?
Friday Morning Open Thread: Old Lies, New WrappersPost + Comments (99)