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Link only: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/can-gop-party-bosses-rig-rules-keep-trump-winning-you-bet

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his face contorted in a scowl, doesn’t get up to greet Alex Villalobos when the big-eyed 42-year-old state senator enters the dimly lit office connected to the executive suite of Tallahassee’s Capitol building. It’s early May 2006, shortly after the last day of the legislative session, and Villalobos is seething. He’s recently been banished from party leadership and his oak-lined office in the Capitol — largely because he voted against the governor’s pet project: making school vouchers part of the state constitution and doing away with a law that limits class sizes in the state’s schools....

If Jeb Bush is to mount any sort of rise in the polls as we close in on the primary season, his best strategy might be to talk about his dad -- specifically, to highlight how popular his once-unpopular father has become 23 years after he lost his campaign for a second term. There is a certain nostalgia afoot for the quiet decency, pragmatism and consensus-building that Bush Sr. represents, suggests Jon Meachem, author of a new biography of the elder Bush, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush." The book is the No. 1 New...

The super PACs going after Donald Trump are making a "bad, bad decision," the candidate's special counsel and adviser warned Tuesday morning, saying that if the reports are true, "it changes everything." "Donald Trump wants to be treated fairly. He will demand that the GOP treat them fairly," Michael Cohen told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." If the party does treat him fairly, Trump "will honor the pledge because he’s an honorable guy," he said. But, "if they break that agreement with him, as they say, woe be on them," Cohen cautioned, referring to the loyalty agreement Trump signed,...

Republican donors with links to several presidential candidates - as well as a prominent GOP operative - are pooling their resources in a new effort to go after Donald Trump and keep the party's presidential front-runner from winning the nomination. The most recent bid is a reported "guerrilla campaign" led by a group called Trump Card LLC and run by Liz Mair, former communications official for the Republican National Committee. The group's goal, according to The Wall Street Journal, is to collect money from anonymous donors to "defeat and destroy" Trump, who has essentially led the GOP presidential field since...

Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN)Donald Trump may be the clear Republican front-runner in New Hampshire but at least one member of his party is saying he shouldn't even be on the ballot. Former state party chairman Fergus Cullen, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump's, on Monday challenged the businessman's status within the party. "It is my belief that Mr. Trump must present evidence that he is a registered member of the Republican Party because his views, expressed over decades, are inconsistent with the Republican Party platform and the Republican Party of New Hampshire's statement of principles and bylaws," Cullen...

Since early 2014, The Washington Post and ABC News have been polling on the 2016 Republican presidential race. (Let's save the "it's too early to poll!!" thing for another day, shall we?) At no point in those two years has Jeb Bush ever been in as bad a shape as he is in the new Post-ABC poll released Sunday. Here's Jeb's support in a hypothetical national primary vote over that time. Six percent. Six! That's roughly one-fifth the support enjoyed by Donald Trump, the leader in the new Post-ABC survey. It's also a precipitous fall from Bush's peak in March...

Nearly a dozen big Republican donors backing different presidential candidates are coming together to help fund an advertising campaign attacking front-runner Donald Trump, who faced sharp criticism from rivals this week for his inflammatory comments about Muslims. Matt David, spokesman for the group planning the attack, a Super PAC called New Day for America, which is supporting Ohio Governor John Kasich's presidential bid, said 10 new donors had pledged money in the two days since Politico reported Thursday evening the group's plans to attack Trump in New Hampshire....

The latest poll results from Rasmussen weren't cheered by the GOP establishment, which has been holding its breath for months, hoping that the frontrunner would fade and allow someone more willing to toe the establishment's line to come to the fore. The poll, taken last week, wasn't encouraging: 63 percent of Likely Republican Voters think Donald Trump will be the Republican Party's nominee for president (up from 59 percent the week before), while 51 percent of all likely voters agree. Trump's claim that President Obama's decision to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States next year is the "ultimate...

Republicans want a candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton. A new Fox News poll finds Marco Rubio performs best against the presumptive Democratic nominee. Rubio has an eight-point edge: 50 percent to Clinton's 42 percent. Then again, Clinton -- who commands 55 percent support among Democratic primary voters, easily outpacing Bernie Sanders (32 percent) and Martin O'Malley (3 percent) -- trails all top-tier Republicans in hypothetical 2016 face-offs. Jeb Bush is ahead of Clinton by six points (45-39 percent). She trails both Ben Carson (47-42 percent) and Donald Trump (46-41 percent) by five. Ted Cruz bests her by four (45-41...

Joining CBS's "Face The Nation" on Sunday, Karl Rove suggested that Americans who grade Senator Ted Cruz highly in terms of his presidential readiness are too ignorant to know what they are looking for in an ideal presidential candidate. When Rove was asked to opine on a poll querying Iowa Republican caucus goers' views of the GOP candidates' readiness to be Commander in Chief, he said of these likely voters, "I don't think they know what they want." "I don't think they know what they mean when it comes down to specific candidates," he said of Iowa Republicans. "They want...

“I think it’s just reflective of what’s been going on for the past month or so and the way the race, at least in the establishment lane, has shifted. It’s really Jeb or Marco now.” Thus spoke an “anonymous” Bush donor, quoted in Politico. The edgy and unidentified Bushie inadvertently confessed that all those Establishment types really do consider Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as one of their own. Apparently his Tea Party upset of then-GOP Establishment Governor Charlie Crist was not what it seemed. Senator Rubio has impressed many on the campaign trail. Without doubt his foreign policy concentration is...

Donald Trump didn't hold back on Karl Rove. In the span of 15 minutes, the Republican presidential front-runner referred to Rove as a "total moron" - adding that "you can print that if you want" - and compared him to someone who has worse aim than someone randomly throwing darts. "A guy like Karl Rove, Karl Rove is Republican establishment. He spent last cycle, $US430 million, and lost every single race," Trump said in an interview with Business Insider last week. "And I saw the commercials and the things that he was making, they're the worst I've ever seen. I...

The Great comeuppance of 2016 is coming. Americans are burning to deliver an old fashioned ass-kicking comeuppance to a list of people and Donald Trump has been judged to be our best chance to make this happen. This is why the “gotcha” questions and personal attacks that stop other candidates have no effect on Trump’s march forward. We don’t care; we want payback. Webster’s defines “comeuppance” as “a punishment that someone deserves to receive.” In everyday terms we know “comeuppance” as “kicking ass and taking names,” and that is what we want Trump to do for us. Americans have had...

Former Florida governor is spending more than twice as much as any other candidate, according to new data With a full year left until the 2016 presidential election it's still unclear who will emerge the winner. But when it comes to millions spent on TV ads, one candidate has already taken the top spot: Jeb Bush. However, other than some gift baskets from local stations in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former Florida governor has little to show for it, with poll numbers stubbornly stuck in the single digits. Bush and his supporters have so far spent an eye-popping $20...

The latest fear mongering approach from the Globalist GOPe advocates (progressive republicans) is to claim they need to attack Donald Trump because he cannot beat Hillary Clinton. This claim is a total sham intended to hide their ulterior motives and here’s why. First to the substance of the claims – In poll after poll of head-to-head match-ups Donald Trump clearly beats Hillary here are recent examples: Fox News Poll – October Trump beats Clinton 45-40 Minnesota Poll – Trump beats Clinton 45-42 Florida Poll – Trump Beats Clinton 49-40 Survey USA Poll – Trump beats Clinton 45-40 And not only...

A well-connected GOP operative alarmed by the enduring strength of Republican Donald Trump's presidential bid is planning a "guerrilla campaign" backed by secret donors to knock him out of the race. Liz Mair, former online communications director of the Republican National Committee, recently created Trump Card LLC to "defeat and destroy" the celebrity businessman's candidacy, according to a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal. "In the absence of our efforts, Trump is exceedingly unlikely to implode or be forced out of the race," the Trump Card memo says. "The stark reality is that unless something dramatic and unconventional is...

Jeb Bush and his allies have now spent approximately $20 million in TV ads in the 2016 presidential race - more than twice as much as any other candidate or outside group, according to ad-spending data from NBC News partner SMG Delta. And they have little to show for it, will poll numbers for Bush currently stuck in the single digits both nationally and in the early states. The pro-Bush Super PAC, Right to Rise, has spent $19.5 million in TV ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, while the campaign has spent an additional $438,000.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)reveals that conservative House members have received no commitment from Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that he would in any way try to curb the nation’s importation of Muslims on visas. By the end of the year, Congress will have to pass a government funding measure to appropriate funds for all federal operations. The Boehner-Obama debt deal, backed by Ryan, established the spending levels— but Congress still has to pass the actual spending bills which contain the money. Included in this package will be funding for...

In the wake of the Islamic terrorist attack establishment Republican presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio is standing by his support for bringing Syrian refugees into the United States of America, despite the evidence that the Paris murder-rampage involved at least one Muslim terrorist who had infiltrated Europe among the thousands of “refugees” now leaving the Middle East. Rubio’s astonishing doubling down on his support for this policy of national suicide was documented in a weekend article by our friend Matthew Boyle of Breitbart. When Boyle asked Rubio if after the Paris attack he still supported bringing more Syrian “refugees” to...