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Rove to Jeb Bush: Maybe tone it down with the “illegal immigration is an ‘act of love’” bit
Hotair ^ | 04/08/2014 | AllahPundit

Posted on 04/08/2014 3:17:57 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The clip comes from Politico but the translation comes from Mark Krikorian:

Karl Rove to Jeb Bush: Wait til _after_ the election to say what you really think http://t.co/Dk3JXnjhmj

— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) April 8, 2014

The weirdest thing to me about Jeb’s “act of love” comment is that, as recently as last year, he was positioning himself as some sort of hardliner on the citizenship issue. Remember? No citizenship for illegals, he said; permanent residency is fine but to grant them full citizen privileges would offend the rule of law. Fast-forward a year and now lawbreaking is an act of love, something a compassionate nation surely wouldn’t punish with perpetual second-class status. I don’t know how he reconciles that.

Maybe it’s as simple as him reacting to Rubio’s political position in both cases. A year ago, Rubio was getting hammered by the right for backing the Gang of Eight bill. Jeb may have concluded that there was room to his right in the 2016 primaries by running as a “no citizenship” candidate. A year later, Rubio’s all but abandoned the Gang of Eight bill as being too weak and has tacked back to the right via foreign policy and ObamaCare. Change of plans for Jeb, then: Now there’s room to Rubio’s left in the field. That’s where “act of love” came from, I guess, as a signal to the centrists — especially rich, business-minded, amnesty-supporting centrists who are trying to settle on a champion — that Bush would stand up to the righty candidates who’ll be left fighting over the anti-amnesty vote. But even so, “act of love” is such an odd and needlessly provocative way of putting things. I think Rove’s consternation here is legit. He wants a pro-amnesty candidate but he doesn’t want one who’s going to dare conservatives to knock him down the way Perry unwittingly did with his remark in 2011 about in-state tuition for illegals being a simple matter of “having a heart.” Like Krikorian said yesterday, if border-hopping is an act of love, border enforcement is necessarily a form of hate. Is that the message that’s going to win this guy the Republican nomination?

Could be that Mickey Kaus is right that this is just a clever ploy by Jeb to help his protege Rubio. The squishier Bush gets on amnesty, the easier it is for Rubio to attack him as a RINO, which helps Rubio rebuild conservative cred. Or maybe Jeb secretly agrees with me and WaPo that the entire Republican field reeks on immigration and therefore he might as well start pandering to the donor class and to Latino voters now. After all, who’s going to attack him harshly for the “act of love” comment? Cruz? Jeb doesn’t really need to worry about Cruz; by the time the race is down to the two of them, Bushworld will be tearing Cruz limb from limb with ads about how he’s a radical and borderline anarchist. Jeb needs to win the center first and realistically no centrist candidate is going to go to the mat on the “act of love” soundbite for fear of alienating Latinos. The question is, is that sort of rhetoric so squishy that even centrist voters will start looking at each other sideways over it? That’s what Rove’s worried about, I think.

And yeah, I do think he’ll run. Steve Hayes is right: A guy who’s already thinking about his soundbites being caught on tape is a guy who’s thinking very seriously of jumping in.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: florida; illegals; immigration; jebbush; karlrove; politico; rememberterri
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1 posted on 04/08/2014 3:17:57 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Love of Free Money and Benefits from stupid Americans....


2 posted on 04/08/2014 3:19:30 PM PDT by Mr. K (If you like your constitution, you can keep it...Period. PALIN/CRUZ 2016)
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To: SeekAndFind
MEMO TO JEB BUSH:  Instead of getting that degree in Latin American affairs, might have been wise to get a degree in AMERICAN HISTORY!  Since you're obviously so fond of Latin America, perhaps there's an office waiting for you down there? Oh wait, THEY have very rigid RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS down there. never mind

WASHINGTON ON IMMIGRATION

"The policy or advantage of immigration taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the language, habits, and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them.  Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws; in a word, soon become one people." George Washington in a letter to John Adams

JEFFERSON ON IMMIGRATION

"Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet, from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass." That xenophobic radical, Thomas Jefferson

Mr. Jefferson's concerns go right to the heart of the questions of uncontrolled immigration and, in Obozo's case,  natural born citizenship, don't they?

3 posted on 04/08/2014 3:20:25 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (Ignorance is NOT BLISS. It is the ROAD TO SERFDOM! We're on a ROAD TRIP!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

There is ONLY thing that this “act of love” BS is, and that is to firmly establish his GOPe bona fides and get the establishment critters to rally around his despicable persona.

STAY OUT OF THE BUSHES!!


4 posted on 04/08/2014 3:21:42 PM PDT by House Atreides
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To: SeekAndFind

Nomo homo promo.


5 posted on 04/08/2014 3:21:49 PM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

donor class aka the cheap labor class.


7 posted on 04/08/2014 3:27:33 PM PDT by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Sometime in 2017.. President Jeb Bush's immigration reform easily passes with bipartisan support.

"He told voters that he wouldn't do this. The dummies believed him!"

8 posted on 04/08/2014 3:28:56 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Rove to Bush, "Don't show how you really feel."

With apologies to Melissa Manchester:
Don't cry out loud
Just keep it inside, learn how to hide your feelings
Fly high and proud
And if you should fall, remember you almost had it all

9 posted on 04/08/2014 3:30:24 PM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: SeekAndFind

“Ix-nay on the ove-lay. You’re giving away our strategy.”


10 posted on 04/08/2014 3:30:39 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Obamacare: You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.)
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To: SeekAndFind

JEBushatgmail.com
“Cool it with the `love offering’ stuff, Jeb-O. That’s ... crazy talk.” KR


11 posted on 04/08/2014 3:36:59 PM PDT by tumblindice (Are all Democrats inveterate, habitual liars?)
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To: SeekAndFind

People are ignoring the obvious. Jeb is an idiot who runs his mouth.

He has some delusion that immigration wont be an issue or that he can ban all GOP contenders from discussing it.

Which would allow a Donald Trump type candidate runs third party on immigration the GOP definitely loses with a RINO.


12 posted on 04/08/2014 3:49:21 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
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To: ObamahatesPACoal

All I needed to know about Jeb I learned when he left Terri Schiavo to die.


13 posted on 04/08/2014 3:51:43 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I will not vote for a Bush or Cristie, I’ve had it with them.


14 posted on 04/08/2014 3:56:52 PM PDT by stevio (God, guns, guts.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Somebody suggested that Jeb has a fetish for Mexican girls, so he is pitching to teenage boys that if he opens the borders, lots of hot, teenage Mexican girls will come across the border, so that even the geekiest among them will get dates.


15 posted on 04/08/2014 3:59:18 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
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To: SeekAndFind

Effe both porky pig Rove and the Bushies.


16 posted on 04/08/2014 4:08:56 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: SeekAndFind

ME to Rovio..... STFU


17 posted on 04/08/2014 4:15:54 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: SeekAndFind

Rove feels the same way as Bush. He just realizes that he has to dupe the American public instead of being totally honest about his feelings.


18 posted on 04/08/2014 4:15:57 PM PDT by Revel
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To: SeekAndFind

There’s the guy to listen to Jeb, he has what record? Maybe a 2% win ratio?


19 posted on 04/08/2014 4:18:58 PM PDT by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: House Atreides

Read my lips...NO NEW BUSHES!


20 posted on 04/08/2014 4:21:00 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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