Twenty years of Bush Dynasty. Is
George P. waiting in the wings?
Heather Digby Parton writes about
Jeb Bush’s terrifying W. strategy. How he’s sucking up to extremist billionaires—with the help of the worst president ever:
With these thirteen simple words GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush struck terror into the entire world yesterday. He said,
“If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him.”
To whom was he referring? As hard as it is to believe, he was talking about his brother, George W. Bush.
Now it’s true that the question referred to Israel and the Middle East specifically, but it doesn’t really matter. There isn’t any area of policy or interest in which it would be smart to make such an admission. After all, it was during George W. Bush’s tenure that we had the nation’s most catastrophic terrorist attack, that we made the most notorious foreign policy blunder in American history, and that we suffered the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. Indeed, when you look at it that way, you have to give Jeb points for chutzpah, for daring to run at all. [...] But for Jeb to actually suggest that he would listen to his brother or ask him for advice seems rather reckless. [...]
In fact, brother George wasn’t entirely trusted by many of the neocons in the beginning, either. During the 2000 campaign his outreach to the Jewish community was felt by many to be tepid, and his talk of a “humble foreign policy” sounded very much like he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps. Leading neocons like William Kristol backed his rival John McCain, whom they knew had never met a war he didn’t want to fight, and would likely be easily talked into “finishing the job” in Iraq. But as we know, “W” rose to the occasion beyond the neocons’ wildest dreams.
But Jeb’s problem really isn’t about placating Bill Kristol and the boys. After all, Jeb’s an O.G. neocon going all the way back to the ’90s. There’s no need to prove his pro-Israel bona fides to these guys. He was there when it counted. So what’s this really all about?
Well, it’s about winning the donor primary. [...]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Sen. Sessions: Original Gangster:
Hey, anybody remember that whole thing where the Bush "administration" US Attorneys were illegally politicized by, among others, Karl Rove, who never answered his subpoena from either the House or Senate Judiciary Committees on the subject?
Yeah, me too.
And I know that everyone's got their eye on the issue of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) just being a straight-up racist. (That perhaps gets easier to fathom when you realize that cute-'n-cuddly "Jeff" Sessions' full name is actually Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.)
But here's something that I think is being overlooked in that. It's definitely a seminal part of the record on the accusations of racism, but there's a more salient point to be gleaned from it, in my opinion: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is one of the original politicized Republican US Attorneys, present at the creation of the still-active conspiracy to use partisan-driven, trumped up "voter fraud" charges to suppress traditionally Democratic African-American voter turnout.
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, jobs numbers are out, and exactly as predicted, Obamacare has destroyed all the jobs. Also, we all died of Ebola. VA-10's Barbara Comstock hopes she'll get credit for the Metro expansion she opposed.
Rosalyn MacGregor updates us on the results of MI's Prop 1.
Armando joins in for our patented, directionless roundup. First up, Jeb's brand new foreign policy advisor. Then, we learned that Hillary Clinton can't control the press, and that a good reason to cover Joe Biden is that he's the vice president. Thank you, press! Finally, we also discuss the big 2d cir. decision on mass phone surveillance, and a "lost" piece from Jay Rosen on the issues raised.
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