Associated Press
We talked yesterday about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and his decision to drop his support for a pathway to citizenship in immigration reform, despite having pushed the opposite line for years. The Republican's shift has caused quite a stir, especially among reform proponents who now feel betrayed by a man they had considered a key ally.
But there's one group of folks who seem even more outraged: Mitt Romney's campaign team.
The revelations angered top advisors to Mitt Romney, who felt that Bush went out of his way to make statements during the campaign that undermined the former Republican presidential candidate's campaign by seeming to urge a softer approach to immigration.
"Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?" said one advisor. "He spent all this time criticizing Romney and it turns out he has basically the same position. So he wants people to go back to their country and apply for citizenship? Well, that's self deportation. We got creamed for talking about that. And now Jeb is saying the same thing."
Romney aides have a point. Jeb Bush helped speak for the more moderate wing of the GOP throughout 2012, making the party's presidential nominee look more extreme. Now that the election has come and gone, Bush is suddenly making a hard-right shift, and if I worked for Romney, that'd probably annoy me, too.
As for why the Florida Republican now opposes the policy he used to support, one can only speculate about his motivations (Fox News' Sean Hannity talked to Bush last night, but failed to ask any questions about the shift). Perhaps this is about generating publicity to sell books; maybe it's about pandering to the right-wing Republican base in advance of the next presidential election. It may well be both.
But while I have not yet read Bush's new book, the Huffington Post reports that it's not only a radical departure from everything he said he believed, it's also surprisingly hard line.
"It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences -- in this case, that those who violated the law can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship. To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship."
If Jeb does have national ambitions, don't be surprised if we look back at this as his "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" moment. It may help sell some books, and it'll help him get some airtime, but this is a political loser for Bush -- anti-immigration Republicans still remember everything he used to believe and reform proponents are disgusted by his crude flip-flop.
Update: On MSNBC this morning, Bush acknowledged he disagrees with parts of his own new book.
Leave a Comment:
Ouch! Anyway, I'm a beginning to get pretty tired listening to all the aftershock!
Hell. the way I'm a hearing these Romneyites and other misc. Republican agents, I'd a think those people believe the 2012 Presidential election was as bad as Custer's last stand!
As far as Jeb is concerned - let the pandering begin! -Kevo
Way past time for Mittens RMoney to disappear. We should only hope that he will take Lyin' Ryan with him.
The rationale for not allowing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship is pretty simple: as citizens, they would be able to vote, and they have proven to be pretty reliably Democratic voters. Capiche?
STAY OUT THE BUSH'S! Yes, I am yelling, the last Bush was terrible for this nation and working Americans, and don't get me started on the corporate welfare that WE are still paying for - and let's stop pretending Jeb was so great for Florida!
Once more the ultimate questions that are the foundation of Republican efforts to bring the disparate cultural frisson of the American public into a coordinated force acting for American , and world interests , has stalled on a technicality . Again , sigh .
Once the technicians clear up the unexpected flurries of hate , which has had a typically energy draining effect , as seen on TV , the main push for connectivity will continue .
The main efforts to establish connectivity will be provided a handy reference table for the fundamental expressions in which idioms , and their use , are translated into fun aerobic exercises . A warm up program is included to keep the expected knee jerk reactions from injuring the political has beens , and the celebrities , who adore the easy to remember utterances .
Like flies to honey , those who cannot help themselves when it comes to shameless contradiction , a good time is guaranteed for all .
Well, what do you expect? Obama's for it, so I have to be against it. Isn't that how the r's roll?
Fool me once, shame on me, Mr. Bush. Fool me twice shame on you. Fool us three times, shame on the country.
The only Bush I want to see is the lilac bush in my yard
Jeb vs. Romney on this legislation? Well, sweety, you can't get all of us conservatives together in a wheel barrow. Throw some money down in our midst and watch us feed on our own.
Plus, we truly do have the "big tent", that the moderates like to talk about. We have a coalition of fiscal libertarians, country club establishment republicans, the Christian right and the working class conservatives. The Democrats can gel, we won't. Yall' win.
Hilary in 2016 and she gets all the Hispanic vote.
No more Clintons! No more Bushes! Time for the dumbocraps to nominate an actual democrat and not another DLC/DINO/Repuke-Lite!
Bernie Sanders in 2016
Aha, the old etch a sketch gambit! Because it worked out so well, last time.
i get the idea he's seriously interested in the g.o.p. nomination, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that party is consumed with nativism and xenophobia. problem is that then, he's got to run in the electorate at large. in other words, the nomination won't be worth a pitcher of warm spit.
Is the title of Jeb's book "Shilling For President, how to sell your soul for a shot at the White House"...?
Needmorecoffee,
Well, Jeb Bush now fits in with the rest of the righties. He's already lying. He's already talking the T-Party talk.
Stay away from the Bushes. There be dragons....
Jon Stewart shouldn’t give difficult words to Romney, it would only confuse Romney. Romney cannot even describe his surroundings the way it is and now you want to add more words to his limited list. Isn’t Romney confused enough?
OK - let me know if I have this right...
For decades, many people crossed the border into the US illegally.
Some of them brought their children with them.
Many came because they could get work here. (Some came to escape persecution).
Businesses happily hired them because they were willing to work for very low wages and were willing to tolerate really bad working conditions.
Other than an occasional INS raid, there has been no risk to the business, has there?
Businesses fill out the appropriate HR forms using social security numbers that are fake.
The workers get taxes withheld, including paying into SS and Medicare like everyone else.
Nobody at the IRS wonders why they are getting money from SS numbers that don't exist or the names don't match or seem to be used by more than one individual.
Does anyone at the IRS check to see if tax returns are sent in for these?
Without these workers, crops don't get picked, tables don't get bussed, landscaping doesn't get done, etc.
These people don't have any rights, have no legal protection, are at the mercy of the employer.
The are truly an under-class - and are essential to our economy.
We know that the State of Arizona wants to crack down and prosecute undocumented immigrants. How many times has the State of Arizona cracked down and prosecute businesses that employ undocumented workers? ~~~crickets~~~crickets~~~
---
The children who were brought in should have a fast pathway to citizenship.
People who came into the US illegally, and yet have been working at jobs that are essential to our economy and who have been behaving responsibly, should have a pathway to citizenship and should get credit for taxes they have already paid.
It's long past time to "frog march" business owners into courts, and begin to prosecute them for any number of violations including tax fraud and violations of federal laws requiring all businesses to verify citizenship, and yes there is an e-verify system in place now.
And the perp walk should include a wide range of companies from mom-and-pop to Fortune 500 and this should be done for weeks on weeks on weeks until the public cries Uncle and realizes that we've all been in on the game. The blame game starts with each and every one of us who are more than well aware of what's been going for decades.
If you shop at Home Depot and claim to know nothing about the illegal aliens shopping for their contractor employers, or hanging out in the parking lot looking for day labor jobs, you are lying to yourself.
If you've eaten at restaurant that has illegals working in the kitchen or busing tables, you are participating in this this fraud.
If you patronized businesses that employee illegal workers to take care of their landscaping, you are in on this fraud.
If you eat local farmer's goods, and think that all the labor is legal you are lying to yourself.
No one is without sin here, and the sanctimonious among us are the worst - I can't have illegals working on my property... I'm running for Public office for Pete's.... right because if you weren't running for office you'd have let them continue to go about their business, like you did for years without question.
Start with businesses and you won't have to deport people... no work, no reason to stay.
Yes it will drive an inflationary wedge into the service economy but we've been willing to live the lie for decades and its time to make the choice.
Do we want low-cost goods and services, or do we want to get rid of low-cost slave labor in the form of silent illegals who have no voice to complain about being paid less than minimum wage, can't report unhealthy conditions or deal with other labor abuses?
Listening to people complain about the problem without admitting they are part of the problem is ridiculously immature.
Time to stop coddling the false beliefs that this is caused by anything other than our simple, collective greed. We want cheap labor and we are giving everyone a pass to get our way.
Prosecute businesses often, publicly and with consequences... watch how quickly the illegals go away.
Oh, and yes I do check my employees, I keep the forms as mandated, and I have never directly hired an illegal employee for my business, but I know any number of businesses around me that can not say the same thing.
American hypocrisy , we do immaturity right .
maphi, #8
Absolutely right. How should Emma Lazarus's poem read, when read by the Republicans? I think I see it now, as I've been out to that island in NY a lot of years ago:
Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the tempest tossed to me................
as long as they are white, Anglo and protestant.
That poem can still bring tears even today. But not for the same reason.
Republicans make me sad.
Republicans make me sad, too, but most of all, they make me MAD.
So Jeb Bush does have the same position as Mitt Romney, which is to say no position at all. He wants the party's support for 2016, so he has to sign on to the party's agenda right now, and the party's agenda on immigration is purely political. They do not want a path to citizenship because they see that as a path to a sudden influx of Democratic voters.
Jeb Bush helped speak for the more moderate wing of the GOP throughout 2012...
Without severely qualify this statement, it makes me believe that Steve & I have vastly different understandings of what is moderate.
Jeb Bush was one of the original signers of the Project for the New Century declaration of purpose. PNAC had all of the reich wing 'brain trust' who want to have the United States controll the planet. Their motto might as well be war, more war, war forever, if you have a question the answer is war.
Jeb is a reich wing corporately owned @sshole who has projected an image that is acceptable to the religious reich and has to be considered the front runner for the 2016 repuknican nomination for president.
No more Clintons! No more Bushes!
A-men to No More Bushes! Jeb is now buying into the T-Party platform. I'd say he's running. Probably already sniffing around for Koch money.
I would most definitely go for another Clinton. But we've had two too many Bushes already.
At some point would-be leaders have to, ya know, actually lead...... rather than just figuring out the best way to kowtow to the worst of the base....
Heckuva' job, Jebby!
I hope this makes clear to certain communities - who really is on your side.
Laughable how Romney's aide is now complaining about a candidate veering hard right, as if his own guy did not do the exact same thing...
John Ellis Bush figured if FUBARRomney won that it might be 8 years before he got a chance to run. He undermined FUBARRomney's campaign by making it look like FUBARRomney was out in the high hater weeds and it was easier for voters to perceive him as extreme and not moderate at all.
To FUBARRomney and all of FUBARRomney's dedicated and loyal supporters... you got totally screwed over by John Ellis Bush. John Ellis Bush turned what was almost certainly a solid win for FUBARRomney's candidacy, to a smoking, smoldering loss of humiliating proportions. You owe that to John Ellis Bush.
"Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?" said one FUBARRomney advisor.
My friend, you got that right. I've seen some underhanded, self serving and sly games being played in the world of politics, but this undermining of FUBARRomney's campaign, which was just brimming with potential and headed for a bright future, by John Ellis Bush and his cronies really is an elephant of a different color.
The tragic implications of that are just really hard to bear. But it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. That stuff is in the past now. Look to the future. Just like FUBARRomney tried his very hardest to do, until he found out that wasn't what the future held for him.
You gotta be careful playin' poker with John Ellis Bush. He's always got an ace showing up when you least expect it. No tellin' where he pulls them out from. FUBARRomney should have known it was coming.
#14 -- What you have said rather reminds me of the campaign George W. ran against Ann Richards for the governorship of Texas. Smells dirty . . .
Wait wait...
Net Immigration is now zero. ZERO. We've sufficiently made things awful enough in this country that they're not bothering to come at all, and they're literally DYING over there due to interactions with drug gangs intent on getting narcotics over our border to sell to our citizens, most likely some of which are politicians.
Whatever happened to that message on the Statue of Liberty? "Give me your tired, your poor, blah blah blah whatever it doesn't matter. Corporations are citizens, and they don't even breathe!!"
To the GOP, corporations are way more important than people. The thing which vexes me, however, is how these right-wingers can get Joe Sixpack to vote against his own best interests and never once mention corporate greed! It never seems to occur to them that they are doing this! The trick never ages, the illusion never wears off. Vote those social issues like abortion, you get a roll back in capital gains. Vote to help the economy, you get outsourcing. Vote to screw those elite. socialist liberals, you get bank deregulation! Vote to get government off your backs, you get medical procedures for women like ultra-sound. You get homeland security. You get electricity deregulation.
Vote for the wealthy elite; refuse to raise their taxes, they get richer, you get poorer! Can't they see that what trickles down on them is pi#@?
I can't get my mind around this phenomenon.
New OrleansWinosaur,
I did a new version of that poem, above. #8.3.
If Jeb Bush runs in 2016? My first question will be, "What did you do to us in Forida during the 2000 election, Jeb?" What part(s) did you play in that disgusting mockery and thievery of American Democracy? Let us never forget it was Jeb who signed 'Stand Your Ground' legislation into law as Governor too.
I'm not surprised by this 'about face' one bit and I've never bought his more recently adopted 'fakey moderate' schtick either. Frankly? I expected him to keep up that charade far longer. His chances of holding on to GOP moderates or even attracting some Democrats for the party would have been far greater had he done so.
I keep wondering what that 'unscheduled White House visit' was all about (read: secretive meeting) when Papa and Jeb Bush met with Obama a couple of years ago. I hope it killed George Sr. to see Obama leaning back in the Oval office chair that he once occupied and destroyed Jeb with the knowledge that he never would.
I'm so sick of these people!!!
#16, It is getting to where you have to take anti-nausea pills to even hear what they say or just look at their smug faces.
LOL! I know! Right?
Right!
We should have an anti-beauty contest, starring Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and John McCain.
Maybe an anti-truth contest, see who's the biggest liar? Now we can add Jeb Bush to the roster!
Worst facial plastic surgery? Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and surprisingly? Donald Trump.
Best facial plastic surgery? Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Ann (Stop it!) Romney.
itzwitchy,
Mc Connell really needs plastic surgery, but I guess he couldn't find a veterinarian willing to do it.
I'm trying to imagine what role big brother W (he who cannot be mentioned) would play if Jeb ran in 2016. That's a lot of family baggage... Maybe he could combine it into a GWB apology tour?
Have Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent and Kid Rock play on their apology tour. Then they can apologize while they are at it too...
Toothless Hank, Brainless Ted and shrivel d*** Kid Rock. Pamela Lee dun da shrivlin' for y'all stupid trailer trash, Karl Rove, we got a problem.
Jeb Bush is just trying to set the tone for the 2016 primary, he's smart if he can spend the next three years establishing a more moderate consensus he won't, have to make the move to the far right like Romney did, which will make him more electable in the Presidential election, whether the rabid right wing conservative masses will go along with him remains to be seen.
mark tk,
Jeb will have to move in with them, go to the far right. They won't move left.
Here's the salient point: It won't matter. Bush is a four letter word.
Geeee, Repugs think they made a mistake. So 'nuf did!...... being born.