We've got scores of interesting elections next week and people want to talk about whether Jeb wants to lose the 2016 GOP nom? Smh
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) October 27, 2014
Barring a moral awakening or some other improbable event, it looks like we’re gonna be forced to witness the Bush clan attempting to shoehorn yet another family member into the White House. Per CNN:
… The Des Moines Register reports Tuesday that GOP Iowans recently received mailers from the former Floridian governor that sounded more like a campaign pitch than a donation plea for his social fundraising group, Excellence in Education National…
In recent days speculation about a potential bid has increased following several comments made by his family members. On Sunday, both of Bush’s sons hinted that their father is seriously considering running. In an interview with the New York Times, Jeb Bush Jr. said that people and donors are “getting fired up” about the idea of his father running for president.
“I think it’s more than likely that…he’ll run. The family will be behind him 100 percent if he decides to do it,” George P. Bush, the governor’s youngest son, told Jon Karl on ABC’s “This Week.”
Jeb also, per the AP, criticized President Obama’s crisis management as “incompetent” and called his Middle East strategy “an unmitigated disaster”, because his target GOP voters have had six whole years to forget everything about the Dubya/Cheney administration.
So I’m happy to see that Mother Jones has published an early primer of “23 Reasons Why Jeb Bush Should Think Twice About Running for President“, including helpful links to some of the many shady characters in Jeb’s business background:
… The fraudster: In 1986, Camilo Padreda, who had been a counterintelligence officer for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s, hired Bush to find tenants for office buildings financed with US Department of Housing and Urban Development-backed loans. Bush took the gig, despite the fact that four years earlier Padreda had been indicted for embezzling $500,000 from a Texas savings and loan. Those charges were dropped, but in 1989 Padreda pleaded guilty to defrauding HUD of millions…
The international fugitive: In 1986, Miguel Recarey, who’d done 30 days in jail for income tax evasion in the 1970s, paid Bush $75,000 to help him find a new headquarters for his health care company. The company never moved, but while Bush’s father was serving as vice president, Bush lobbied the US Department of Health and Human Services to help Recarey access millions in Medicare funds…
The fortunate son: Cuban American real estate developer Armando Codina was the Florida chair of George H.W. Bush’s unsuccessful 1980 bid for the GOP presidential nomination. He loved the Bush family so much that when Jeb first moved to Miami in the early 1980s, he made Bush a partner in his real estate company and gave him 40 percent of the profits—even though Jeb had no real estate experience or money to invest. In 1985, Bush and Codina bought an office building partially financed by a savings and loan that later failed. The $4.56 million loan went into default, but federal regulators gave Bush and his partner a pass. Instead of foreclosing, they merely asked them to repay $500,000 of the loan. Taxpayers picked up the rest. In 1991, Bush and Codina sold the building for $8 million.
The shady company: In 2007, Bush joined the board of InnoVida, a building materials-manufacturing startup founded by a businessman whose previous company had gone bankrupt under suspicious circumstances. Bush and his fellow board members subsequently failed to notice that InnoVida officials had used forged documents to fake solvency, hidden the company’s financial problems, and misappropriated $40 million. The company’s Maserati-driving founder eventually went to jail for money laundering, and investors lost their shirts when the company went bankrupt in 2011. Last year, Bush agreed to repay the $270,000 he was paid by the company as a consultant to reimburse defrauded investors….
BGinCHI
If that Mother Jones article would have appeared in The National Review, it would have been called “Getting It Done: Bush Leadership in Action.”
mdblanche
And now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.
Davis X. Machina
Republicans are essentially monarchists. Their one concession to this new-fangled democracy stuff is a ratifying vote every fourth year, and that rigged to the extent possible.
For the rest of the time it’s good-bye politics, hello courtiers jockeying for royal favor, pensions, monopolies, colonial governorships, wars of religion….
I’d be shocked if they didn’t hand the nomination to Jeb.
dmsilev
I trust his campaign slogan will be “Jeb Bush: Evil rather than stupid”.
MattF
So, there’s Jeb!, the Return of Romney, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Christie… I must be missing someone… Ummm… please?
Karen in GA
I think I have even less faith in this country than I did when Bush the Lesser was in office. I mean, we were all wondering how nobody else could see what a disaster the guy was going to be, but I thought for sure when it finally became obvious to all but the 27%, the Republican party would be burned down and the earth salted so nothing could grow there again.
Instead, people want to give these fuckers control of the Senate, and the Bush family is not only still allowed out in public, but still allowed to put forth more of their sick hellspawn as being fit to hold office.
WTF, America?
Calouste
1 Reason Why Jeb Bush Should Run for President:
None of the things reported by Mother Jones will ever be mentioned by the MSM.
srv
Look, great men attract shady people. Look at Bill Clinton, “missing” billing records found laying on a table in a closet on the private residence floor. You people just don’t understand there are real gnomes out there trying to make them look bad.
Tree With Water
For those who didn’t hear, GHW Bush loves Bill Clinton “like a son”.
Felanius Kootea
Jeb Bush will never be president.
Off-topic: Bellevue workers, worn out from treating Ebola patient, face stigma outside hospital. There’s also stigma within the hospital (healthcare providers who have not cared for Dr. Spencer versus healthcare providers who have). Includes a mention of nurses initially refusing to relieve a colleague taking care of Dr. Spencer’s fiancee. At this rate, we may have a healthcare worker mutiny in the US, when it comes to treating these patients, which will just make things worse.
Anne Laurie
@MattF:
Rick Sanctorum — “It’s his turn!”
Tree With Water
@Felanius Kootea: “Jeb Bush will never be president”. Agreed. If nothing else, a simple reminder of his disgraceful behavior during the Schiavo business will insure that. I’ll never forgery how sore his brother looked because he had to interrupt his vacation to return to D.C. to sign that bill. I’ll even credit GW for realizing it was a big mistake even as he signed it. Charles Pierce has a refresher course about it posted at Esquire today.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I guess he found a way to get his crazy wife deported to Guantanamo.
@Felanius Kootea: Horseshit. That’s what I said about Reagan and look where we are today. If Hillary runs she might be able to pull it off, assuming she can find some charisma that she hid someplace, and lose her unparalleled ability to put audiences to sleep. If the Dems run anyone else, he’s got the job, slam fucking dunk.
Americans are fucking morons. You all have forgotten that.
GregB
Return of the Jeb III.
Tree With Water
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I as good as lost a $50 bet I made with my mother the night Reagan was first elected in 1980. “The American people will never re-elect this idiot”, I thundered. My mom disagreed, and took me up on my bet. She was quietly smug about it ever after, too.
Hal
So will we finally learn the truth about Jeb and she who applies makeup with a spatula, Katherine Harris?
Sorry, I just think Jeb is a non-starter. He supports immigration reform for one thing, and that alone will not win him the necessary votes from conservatives. All HRC has to do is compare Bill Clinton’s record and her own with either previous Bush. From one term GHB to the disaster that was GWB, how many people would e willing to take a chance on a third Bush in less than 30 years?
SatanicPanic
@CONGRATULATIONS!: “Americans are fucking morons.”
No we’re not. And if you have this attitude we may as well pack it in. Reagan got lucky. Jeb cannot win.
Davis X. Machina
That’s only because the Democrats consistently, and obstinately, refuse to run real progressives, actual living-breathing social democrats, in places like Arkansas and Kentucky and Louisiana and South Dakota.
Seanly
This is one of those times where I wish I didn’t have any morals. But I suppose I would also need much more lucrative family connections.
But as mentioned above, none of this will see the light of day with our so-called liberal media.
evodevo
None of that fraudy stuff will affect Jebbie’s chances – what WILL shoot him down with the Teabaggers is his position on Hispanics … “Soft On Amnesty!!11!!!111” I can hear the primary commercials now.
Mnemosyne
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
George W Bush lost the popular vote in 2000. He only took office because the Supreme Court intervened and stopped the Florida recount. If the recount had been completed, Gore probably would have won Florida.
But, hey, let’s look at a one-in-a-million concatenation of circumstances and decide that a Bush victory is inevitable.
Corner Stone
@Davis X. Machina: How very droll.
Corner Stone
@Felanius Kootea:
Although I agree with that statement, it has nothing to do with him being the R nominee. Which I still contend he has a very good chance of achieving.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
To think it’s going to be Obama that’s treated as the most horrifically toxic thing in the history of ever at this point. I’ve already seen it from goddamn near everyone at this point, discounting feckless dems and GOP obstruction. NOpe, all Obama, all his fault, most incompetent piece of shit ever, bury him because he’s all that’s bad about politics apparently.
Meanwhile, another Bush jackhole may very well be rushed to the White House because everything GOP is saintly, everything Dem is fucking satanic.
I fucking hate this country.
EDIT: Mr. Pierce sums up my despair.
Cervantes
@BGinCHI:
@Calouste:
The article is based in part on “Family Values,” another MJ article, published September/October, 1992, written by Stephen Pizzo.
Obviously, the earlier article did not prevent the election of Jeb’s father.
Hungry Joe
If Jeb weren’t considering a run he’d have said so by now. Same with HRC. Though it’s possible, I guess, that he just likes having his name tossed around — the NY Times did a feature on him the other day — and figures he can parlay the renewed attention into some serious simoleans.
But I think he’s in, and the R nominee will be either him, Cruz, or Rand Paul.
OzarkHillbilly
For all those who complain about the Bushes, imagine for a second if just one of the Reagan children had a political bone among them…
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maureen.
(She’s dead, of course.)
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
You might want to check your dates there. Bush Sr. was elected in 1988.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne:
Hey, you’re right!
So maybe the article did prevent his re-election? This cheers me up.
Mike in NC
Samuel Bush provided arms to both the Allies and the Central Powers during World War 1, and many people are aware that Prescott Bush was cozy with the Nazi German regime until 1942.
That gene pool needs to dry up.
piratedan
@Karen in GA: Karen in a nutshell, there are oodles of folks out there working their asses off, two breadwinners, some with kids and some without that are busy having interests other than politics, be it sports, music, traveling etc… If we’re lucky, some of them tune in every four years (even fewer every two years) and pop into a voting booth. Most of what they hear and being said is picked up from coworkers (the few that aren’t shouted down by the wingnuts du juor and glibertarian blow bys) and the MSM. Do I want these folks to be better informed about the issues, hell yes, but what I want and the reality that we exist in aren’t often intersecting these days when the rich have more or less found a way to keep the playing field tilted in their favor. If it’s not scary ads about Nancy Pelosi (yes, that’s right Nancy Pelosi) it’s playing on the latent fear of the other, such as there’s a black guy who’s the President, they’re coming for your guns, they’re giving your jobs to immigrants, the government wants to tax you to give poor people free stuff etc etc etc. The sad part is, it works.
I know that government can’t solve all our problems, but it’s damn unlikely that Republicans give a quiet fart about solving any of our problems, unless there’s a profit to be made.
The Other Chuck
@Tree With Water:
The two of them did a lot of disaster relief work together right after the Indian Ocean Tsunami and got to be close friends. GHWB for all his other failings does at least have some class. It does seem to skip a generation though.
Mnemosyne
@Tree With Water:
Look at HW’s other sons and ask yourself if you wouldn’t feel the same.
Cervantes
@piratedan: Thanks. Useful reminder that looking down on “low-information voters” is not going to win their votes. One “low information” factor you did not mention: decline in the reach of unions, engineered by the right for obvious reasons.
shelley
I’m sure it’s included in that article, but Charles Pierce, in his article today, detailed Jeb’s cringe-making behavior during the Terri Schiavo debacle.
(Funny, the bit’s about him making his own medical conclusions brings to mind…….Dr. Chris Christie diagnosing that nurse into forced quarantine.)
mdblanche
@Davis X. Machina: You forget the forces holding out for a restoration of King Mitt the Nevereth. Chris Christie is also still lurking about with a
lean andhungry look. Sure, he’s damaged goods but it’s not like Jeb and Mitt aren’t. If what’s left of the GOP establishment doesn’t coalesce and anoint one of them as their sole candidate before the primaries start, 2016 might be the year one of the klown kar kavalcade finally gets the nomination. Sort of like the time when the partisans of the Bourbons, Orleans, and Bonapartes tripping each other up helped make France a republic again.Botsplainer
I keep having as a fond wish that scene in King Ralph when the entire royal family is electrocuted by a lightning strike on the metal stands during a Royal family photo.,,
Botsplainer
@mdblanche:
Stammering fucking elitist tool that he is.
Mike in NC
Would love to see the Bush sons and the Romney sons fight it out with switchblades and baseball bats to determine who gets the 2016 nomination, because we all know both of those idiots will jump in as the GOP primary season heats up.
JPL
@Felanius Kootea: Actually it’s off topic but interesting because I was just talking to someone who thinks three weeks is nothing if it calms down the public. Since we live in the Atlanta area, I asked about the Emory nurses and doctors who treated four ebola patients now. They aren’t getting treated the same way and I asked what’s different/
Suzanne
@mdblanche: If Jen drove around the country in a stair car instead of a bus, I would have to give him begrudging props for humor.
Botsplainer
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
They try and jam another scion of shithead inequality into office, I expect the productive parts to be less governable this time.
Where do I send my Weatherman explosives for cops and security forces donations?
JPL
Republicans don’t care if folks steal hard earned tax payer money. Scott is governor and will probably be reelected and Nathan Deal will probably be the next governor of GA, If they slept with a black, gay horse, it might get the attention of the repubs.
jo6pac
I can hardly wait vote for the lesser of the evils. Oh right I’ll be voting Green
Suzanne
JeBBBBB, not Jen.
Damn you, autocorrect, and FYWP.
Also: this site still works like shit on iPad and iPhone. The most recent update made it worse.
GET OFF MY LAWN, MOTHERFUCKERS.
Botsplainer
@Tree With Water:
Fellating Randall Terry and his gang of sleazy fucking violent grifters is a disqualification by itself.
Botsplainer
@jo6pac:
Careful. If you flog yourself that much, your dong can develop sores.
Botsplainer
@Mike in NC:
I’ve never seen a rich kid slap fight.
Bucks to doughnuts says that neither bat nor blade makes contact, and that the whole battle is a pastel swirl, kinda like a Renoir painting, only more candyassed.
Lady Bug
@JPL:
That is interesting, any insights into why?
JPL
@Lady Bug: Not really. Emory was the first to treat victims from Africa and the staff was treated as saviors. Maybe it is because there is a trust built. The nurse returned from Africa and the nurses work here? It is interesting though because GA is made up of whackos.
Keith G
@Botsplainer:
Until Bar shows up and takes out the Romney progeny singled handedly – much like a beast in the wild wipes out a competitors DNA en toto.
mdblanche
@Tree With Water: Considering his real sons, I’m not sure that’s meant as a compliment.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Thanks. I’m looking for a new phone, and if BJ isn’t good on the iPhone, I can cross it off the list.
Mike in NC
Have seen a couple of articles on “Walmart Moms”, the ultimate in low-information voters. While not tuned in to politics, they have no idea who the Koch brothers are, nor could they name one sitting member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Odds are also unable to name their current member of Congress. Will walk into the voting booth and flip a coin to decide on who to vote for.
mai naem mobile
I was standing in line at the grocery store and they had the national enquirer type rag with the front story about GHWB’s sad last days . Usually theres a kernel of truth in those stories so just wait for Bush was awesome stories when he kicks the bucket and lots of idiots arent probably going to realize theres a daddy and junior Bush.
catbirdman
Nobody voting on the right gives a crap about old Republican scandals. If you don’t think Jeb can happen to us you’ve not been paying attention to how utterly, unabashedly, and enthusiastically stupid the R’s are getting to be. See, for example:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/161910086/PPP-Louisiana-poll-August-2013
29% of Louisiana Republicans hold Obama more responsible for the Katrina response versus 28% for Bush. Although 44% call themselves “very conservative” they favor Jeb over everyone but Rand Paul, who’s leading him by 1%. So much for Jeb being to pink for the hardcore right.
If R’s thought some random Bush was the only one who could stop Hillary they would pledge everlasting allegiance to which ever one it happened to be. Isn’t that basically how we got Reagan and W in the first place, lack of judgment and standards on the right? Jeb could happen.
Karen in GA
It’s just a hate cult.
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
Fix’d. They care a lot if black or brown people steal hard-earned taxpayer money — in fact, they treat all of them as though they’re stealing taxpayer money, just in case. But if you come from the right (white) family, you can steal all the taxpayer money you can cram into your pockets.
Suzanne
@Baud: The previous version of BJ worked perfectly on the Apple devices. Then they redesigned it, and now it is Teh Suck.
But the problems I have here, I don’t have anywhere else. So it’s not the phone or the iPad.
Mnemosyne
@Felanius Kootea:
I suspect the problem is that the healthcare workers themselves don’t trust the hospitals they work for to train and protect them adequately. It’s a slightly different problem than thinking that the known protocols don’t work, IMO.
Cervantes
@Mike in NC:
Not the worst strategy for them, if they’re really voting without reliable information.
Not sure I’d complain about it, either, if the coin is fair.
Baud
@Suzanne:
It doesn’t really matter who’s to blame. I’m here enough that I’m FYWP’s bitch. I don’t want to get a phone that doesn’t work with BJ.
I’m using Chrome for Android now, and it’s OK. It does let me edit, which I can’t seem to do with my old ipod.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Obama.
Baud
@Cervantes:
Heh. I used to say that the GOP will one day change the U.S. motto to Culpo Obama.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Maybe, but I think they might stick with Deo Vindice.
drkrick
The native Android browser works better with BJ lately, but I wouldn’t call it great.
Culture of Truth
The Republican Jimmy Carter is the Abe Lincoln of that family.
SWMBO
@Botsplainer: Throw in the Palins and we’ve got a money making pay per view event. I think Bristol could take them all…
Chris
@Karen in GA:
Glad it’s not just me.
ThresherK
@mdblanche: Just too funny for words.
Except the Bushies have no Michael. I don’t even know if they have a honest, sweet, dim-bulb of a Buster.
AnonPhenom
@piratedan:
@Cervantes:
As much as we like to laugh at the Right’s tactics (“it all projection, all the time”; witness the recent bedwetting for ebola quarantining juxtaposed the fear-mongering conspiracy of FEMA death camps) we must admit that the Right’s strategy of “if you can’t privatize it (IE: put it under the direct control of the plutocrats) sabotage it” is incredibly effective. It is why they have such an issue with the Internet. There is too much money to be made to kill it outright, but it makes it hard as hell to control the narrative.
Full metal Wingnut
@Mnemosyne: He was also reelected by a narrower margin than Obama in 2012. He truly “won” his two terms on the razor’s edge.
Full metal Wingnut
@Mike in NC: We need some independent commercials.
Footage of Iraqi civilians running across rubble from American bombs. Footage of a chaotic New Orleans immediately after Katrina. No dramatic music, just the sound of what’s actually happening. Cut to Bush II stumbling through a speech and smirking, or making some boneheaded comment about Iraq.
End titles: “What Part of ‘Bush’ Don’t You Understand?”
If I had the money, I would make and air those in a heartbeat.
Full metal Wingnut
@piratedan: I don’t give anyone a pass on that basis. I know people who work their asses off and aren’t interested in politics. They can have some annoying both sides do it ism that they picked up from the media, but ultimately they vote Democratic because they know enough to know better than to vote for the other guys. No excuses for anyone, the running of this country is everyone’s business.
Full metal Wingnut
@catbirdman:
Oh my fucking God. No one who actually believes that should be allowed to hold a professional license or operate heavy machinery.
Oh my fucking God. I think I’m going to cry out of despair. What is wrong with people?
Pongo
@mdblanche: You made my morning!
Elie
@Felanius Kootea:
I find this just appalling and I am embarrassed for my fellow nurses. Nothing was foisted on them without their prior knowledge. They trained for this for a month or more. This is disgusting and if this is symbolic of their professionalism, I hope that I or my loved ones never need to be in that hospital. Its disgraceful!