Posted on 03/31/2014 7:48:40 AM PDT by xzins
Saturday’s Washington Post gave prominent placement to an article headlined “Influential Republicans working to draft Jeb Bush into 2016 presidential race” that detailed the establishment GOP’s desperate attempt to recruit the former Governor of Florida to run for president.
The article by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa claims that “Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP’s brightest hope to win back the White House.”
Rucker and Costa then proceed to list exactly zero “conservative leaders” who are actively recruiting Bush to run for President.
They did, however, provide a long list of progressive Republican billionaires and establishment Republican supporters of Mitt Romney, and his disastrous failure in the 2012 presidential campaign, whose views of Jeb Bush were well stated by former Secretary of State and progressive Republican foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger: “He is someone who is experienced, moderate and thoughtful.”
The Washington Post writers then gave some examples of Bush’s recent political activity (remember he left office in 2006) that should give real pause to any conservative activist or Tea Party movement supporter who might be thinking that Bush wouldn’t be too bad.
Bush campaigned for Obama’s go-to Republican Senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, against State Rep. Joe Carr, the consensus Senate candidate of the state's Tea Party and limited government constitutional conservatives.
Last spring, Bush hosted a dozen high-profile conservatives, including writers for the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, at a dinner at Washington’s Willard InterContinental Hotel, where he defended Common Core.
During the fight to defund Obamacare Bush called Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire to commend her for opposing the conservatives whose fight to cut spending and defund Obamacare led to the federal government shutdown.
In other words, openly opposing the views of the grassroots conservative activist base of the Republican Party is what Rucker and Costa call “small steps to assert his conservative bona fides.”
Some may be inclined to chalk-up The Washington Post article as another example of the media not knowing anything about conservatives and the conservative movement and thus making the erroneous assumption that all Republicans, including Jeb Bush, are “conservative.”
But we don’t see it that way.
What we see is a steady and well-orchestrated effort to redefine “conservatism” to the left, and thus marginalize as “radical” or “unelectable” any candidate or elected official who subscribes to limited government constitutional conservative principles.
This can only help establishment Republican candidates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush assert their conservative bona fides.
The Washington Post article was also really quite revealing in defining the civil war in the Republican Party by who it did and didn’t quote.
On one side were the “quote-ees;” the establishment Republican players, billionaire Romney “bundlers,” former ambassadors appointed by Jeb Bush’s father and brother and the prospective ambassadors to be appointed by Jeb if he gains the presidency.
On the other side were the “not-quoted;” the TEA Party activists, conservative movement leaders, limited government advocates and opponents of the surveillance state – including a good chunk of Silicon Valley – who have already seen what two Bush presidencies look like and want no part of another.
As CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie observed in his new book TAKEOVER, due out on April 8, “No matter who else gets in the Republican presidential primaries, Jeb Bush will remain the ‘great white hope’ of the Republican establishment. In addition to supporting all of their major policy goals from Common Core to amnesty for illegal aliens, a Bush candidacy also holds out the hope of millions of dollars in consulting business and lucrative lobbying contracts for a small but powerful coterie of Bush family supporters and acolytes.
No one else in America, save Hillary Clinton, starts the 2016 political season with a larger Rolodex of Washington insider supporters than does Jeb Bush. A Jeb Bush election as president would ensure that the Republican establishment stays in power for at least another decade, and it would also ensure that, no matter if Jeb or the Democrat wins, Big Government will prevail.”
Click the link to read “Influential Republicans working to draft Jeb Bush into 2016 presidential race” by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa from Saturday’s Washington Post.
As I’ve said before, the GOPe doesn’t realize that after Romney, they’ve lost the ‘hold-your-nose-and-vote’ voters. You’d think they’d have learned, but obviously not.
Fixed it.
Conservatives need their own conventions before the GOP ones to decide on conservative candidates
I’ve been saying this. If we don’t rally around one or two our vote will be diluted. The tea party needs to help with this. True tea party not the hollywood version. Wish we could have a fair and true conservative primary before the primary. Cpac was deluged with Paul voters.
If Jeb is your nominee you might as well bend over and kiss your hiney goodbye.
Freegards
LEX
Just joking. They both display a lack of consistent dedication to anything that most of us would want to be a party to.
William Flax
The problem is the dead end candidate. aka delusional candidate. These are candidates who will NEVER have any money, NEVER have any viability, and generally are just plain nuts.
There are ample true conservatives with real resources. We just have to stop wasting time with deadenders who are often funded by democrats.
” Latinos probably wouldn’t”
This one certainly won’t-he is still part of the GOP establishment-and the words “political” and “dynasty” do not belong in the same sentence, ever...
Good deal. The GOPe is as bad as democrats.
And my point was that his supporters parade his wife as some sort of token Latino. They’re assuming that Latinos would be attracted to him because his wife is Latino. I don’t care if his wife is Chinese, Black, Italian, Latino, etc. I care about where he stands on the issues.
No Jeb! I like the Bush family but enough is enough!
I am a Ted Cruz fan!
It may be time to activate an “Anyone-But-Bush” THIRD PARTY. I guess we need:
Unpaid “National” leadership in Washington, DC
Offices set up in each of the 50 states.
Frequent interviews on TV to repeat: Is the GOP “establisnment” CRAZY?
The GOP “establisment” has blown two elections already.
The American Dream is NOT to make its “consultant” class rich...
Effe every damn Bushie. UnAmerican losers.
It may be time to activate an “Anyone-But-Bush” THIRD PARTY. I guess we need:
Unpaid “National” leadership in Washington, DC
Offices set up in each of the 50 states.
Frequent interviews on TV to repeat: Is the GOP “establisnment” CRAZY?
The GOP “establisment” has blown two elections already.
The American Dream is NOT to make its “consultant” class rich...
There is also his strong support of common core.
COmmon Core is turning out to be such a farce.
You spent a lot of intellectual effort to simply state that another mushy, middle of the road, moderat, progressive RINO will simply lose, like the preceeding 2.
I will join the Conservative group that sat out in 2012 if the R candidate is Jeb, Christie, Huckabee or Kasic (as well as others.)
We must nominate an unashamed constitutional conservative.
testtesttest
What’s worse, ignorance or apathy? I don’t know, nor do I care.
“2014 is pretty meaningless. It’s 2016 that is huge. And what is the GOPs answer to that? A war on Conservatives.”
If the GOP successfully puts the Tea Party in its place this fall, then they will be empowered to fight that war even harder. This fall is MUCH more important than 2016. If the DC elite win, then the people lose and will probably never have another chance to regain our liberty.
I am right there with you. 2012 was the very last time I will ever vote for the lesser of two evils.
We are too close to losing our Republic forever. Bush is extremely rabid for full amnesty. That idiot has no concern that it will utterly destroy our Republic as Founded. Amnesty is true checkmate for our Republic.
no honest conservative supports Jeb, phony RINOs yes, not conservatives.
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