Battenfeld: Weld has come out swinging for Bush

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has quietly recruited a high-powered team of Bay State boosters, including former Gov. William F. Weld, who hosted a private fundraiser this month, the Herald has learned.

Weld, a sometimes controversial figure in the GOP who played a leading role for Gov. Charlie Baker’s 2014 campaign, introduced Bush at a Sept. 9  fundraiser at the Lenox Hotel and donated $2,000 to Bush’s Right to Rise super PAC back in April.

The Bush campaign did not publicize the Boston fundraiser or Weld’s support, but the former governor is expected to formally endorse Bush in the coming days, sources told the Herald.

The invitation to the fundraiser also lists former Ambassador Chris Egan, businessman and philanthropist Joe O’Donnell, Putnam Investments CEO Bob Reynolds and the Parthenon Group’s William Achtmeyer as members of Bush’s Massachusetts finance committee.

Weld, a partner at the high-powered Mintz Levin law firm, is not a close friend of the Bush family and his outspoken support of abortion rights and socially moderate views have often put him at odds with conservative Republicans.

Sources said Weld is backing Bush in the crowded GOP race because he agrees with most of his views and apparently doesn’t think much of the rest of the field.

When he introduced Bush at the Boston fundraiser this month, he called him an “eagle among chickens,” according to one of the attendees.

Weld did play a major role in former Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, but he angered GOP leaders by endorsing Democrat Barack Obama over Republican nominee John McCain just before the 2008 election.

The former Florida governor has struggled in New Hampshire and is now down to single digits in national polls, but his campaign is hoping to score a chunk of Massachusetts’ 39 delegates in the state’s March 1 presidential primary.

The Bay State has drawn almost no attention so far, but its early position in the GOP primary schedule could give Bush a chance for a much-needed win in the March 1 Super Tuesday contests.

While Weld’s endorsement will help Bush with moderate Massachusetts Republicans, it’s not likely to sway the most influential GOP figure in the state, Baker. The governor has made it clear he won’t endorse anyone in the Republican presidential primaries.

Weld has stayed active in national politics and even dabbled with a White House run himself, but his political career came to an end after a failed U.S. Senate bid in 1996 and a short-lived 2006 campaign for New York governor.

How fitting. The low-energy former governor of Massachusetts is "quietly" working behind the scenes at "private" fundraisers in a "low profile" effort to boost the Jebby Bush campaign from 6 per cent to perhaps 7 or 8 per cent in the national polling.

RINOs like Bill Weld put the lower case "e" in GOPe.

e=low energy

The former governor, apparently does not think much of the rest of the GOP field. He calls the "joyful tortoise" an "eagle among chickens", with Trump, Cruz and the rest being the chickens.

The Wikipedia article on RINO needs a photo. I'm thinking a photo of Bill Weld and or Jebby Bush needs to be added to this article.

"You know SamAdams76 and the rest of the Free Republic...I don't really need this abuse. I really don't. You think it’s easy running for president and getting endorsed by the likes of has beens like Bill Weld and Mitt Romney? What…you think I LIKE being called “eagle among chickens” by obscure former governors and having to suck up to them for their $2,000 donations?

This is NOT what I signed up for. Boy, am I going to sock it to my brother next time I run into him. He said 'Don't worry Jebbie, don't worry. Just do what they tell you to do and the nomination is yours. It'll be a cakewalk. Everything's been arranged'.

Yeah, right. Everything's been arranged. Does six percent in the polls look to you like it's been arranged? I don't think so.

So here I am, up in some VFW hall in some godawful New Hampshire backwater, having to actually campaign! Fighting for my political life while this Donald Trump flies around the country like some Saudi oil baron, high in the polls, in his fancy suits and his private jet that makes Air Force One look like a puddle jumper.

Hell, even this no name Ben Carson is polling better than me. Not to mention that bitch that ran HP into the ground. All of them in double digits and here I am trying to get a rise out of this sorry-ass crowd they put in front of me. To try and lighten things up a little, I tell them my best Donald Trump joke in Spanish. And I get dead silence. Dead silence. Don't these New Hampshire rubes know a word of Spanish?

Now they got me going to Iowa this weekend to go out to some cornfield someplace. They got me talking about farm subsidies and stuff like that. This wasn't supposed to go down like this! The nomination was supposed to be mine! That's what they told me. All I had to do was go to Cleveland for the convention to make my acceptance speech and read off the teleprompter the words they wanted me to say. Then I would get to campaign against Hillary Clinton who had her nomination all pre-arranged as well. But now it looks like even that is not going to happen.

What the hell happened to the plan? I thought they had this thing all planned out. Trump? Trump? Are you serious? What the hell is he doing in this race? I've had just about enough of this nonsense. Somebody get me off this Crazy Train.

And you people on the Free Republic…go to hell.

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