Stay out of the Bushes

July 11, 2006

Last week, U.S. News reported that Florida Gov. [tag]Jeb Bush[/tag] (R) is being talked up as the ideal vice presidential candidate in 2008.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes vice president,” said a Bush friend and Florida lawmaker. After all, it was good enough for his dad. The two reasons cited: Jeb is wildly popular in Florida, a key electoral state, and he is often called the smarter Bush brother.

With comments that will only fuel speculation further, Jeb was noncommittal yesterday when asked about possibly joining a [tag]John McCain[/tag] ticket.

“I like Sen. McCain. I think he’s a good guy,” Bush told reporters after returning from a holiday in Maine with his family. […] When prodded about the likelihood of a McCain-Bush ticket, Bush hedged just slightly.

“There’s all sorts of time to worry about the [tag]2008[/tag] election,” he said.

Keep in mind, Jeb has been surprisingly forthcoming about his intentions. When asked about his interest in Florida’s Senate race last year, he quickly and categorically ruled out the possibility. Asked about running for president, Jeb was Shermanesque. Even when rumors surfaced about the NFL commissioner’s job, Bush said he did not want, and would not accept, the gig.

But asked about becoming McCain’s [tag]running mate[/tag], Jeb said, “There’s all sorts of time to worry about the 2008 election.” Given his track record, that suggests real interest.

Over the last 30 years, every single Republican presidential ticket has featured someone named Bush or Dole. I was cautiously optimistic 2008 would break the trend. Perhaps not.

Hasn’t this family done enough to us? Why can’t they leave our country alone?

  • C’mon, Mr. CB, you know that the Rethugs only have one play on every topic, and on Presidential/Veep tickets, that play is to have Bush and/or Dole on it. They can’t resist it: they have no character and therefore cannot exercise self-denial (i.e., cannot resist temptation), AND they have no other ideas. So, I fully expect Jeb to be there, and his coyness merely illuminates his real ambition.

  • The idea of dynastic power seems to haunt America: the Kennedy Clan (Jack and Bobby in 1960 and 1968, with periodic hints that Ted might accept ever since, even various cousins and nephews), the Bush Crime Family (Prescott, GHW, GW, and next maybe Jeb or a nephew), the Clinton Juggernaut (Bill in 1992 and 1996 and now Hillary). Isn’t it time we realize ours as the Democracy it was created to be? Our fawning over possible dynastic extension reeks of medievalism.

  • As a Florida resident, I wouldn’t say that Jeb “is wildly popular in Florida”. Most of the people I know loathe, despise and revile him. Then again, I live in the southern, more progressive part of the state.

  • I propose all three of them run for the Kennebunkport town council and create a shining city on a hill in the hinterlands of Maine.

    I think the key fact to keep in mind here is that a guy named Jeb is the smarter brother. I can see it now in lawns across America – McCain/Bush 2008 one is a filp-floping pandering war hero and the other is smarter than his brother. Rove will have to massage it a little to fit it on the bumper sticker.

  • There is absolutely nothing in the history of this family that suggests that Jeb Bush wont be on the ticket in some way shape or form. If not in 08 than in 12. When has a Dole or a Bush NOT been on the ticket? And MNProgressive starts to hit on the rationale for his future Presidential run – that he is the “smarter” one – that you get all the “good” stuff of W and lose a lot of the bad…….more measured like Dad was…….this gang has never been about the country, they are about themselves, and this is all they do – they make billions for their ilk. So, a two term governor of our fourth largest state, whose Dad and brother have already had the office? Oh yeah, he’s running. Bet on it.

  • Add Nixon, add the phrase “except 1964”, and you can go back fifty-four years. (Add Dewey and … well, never mind).

    The point is that Nixon, Dole and the Bush clan each, in their own way, managed to bridge the chasm between the Republican party’s source of money (big business in the northeast and midwest) and its source of votes (suburbs and small towns in the midwest, west, and south). Not to mention that Republicans have always been much better than Democrats at voting (often with a healthy dose of self-delusion) for candidates they don’t actually agree with on most issues if that will ensure them a grip on power. So Nixon, Dole & the various Bushes have won elections over and over again (OK, Dole never won anything, but bear with me) because their electability trumped, in Republican voters’ minds, some pretty strong policy disputes over the years

  • Being labelled “the smarter Bush brother” still sets the bar really low.

    Has about the same ring as “nicest guy in prison,” except for the fact that I know some very nice people in prison.

  • While being labeled the smarter Bush may be a dubious distinction, the dominant family gene is for dishonesty, self-serving and elitist attitudes and general disregard for anyone who is not a Bush or a Bush Pioneer. The nasty streak is particularly apparent in Barbara, Neil and of course W. Why would we thing the gene magically skipped Jeb.

  • Bush is lame duck. This limits his ability to use the carrot and the stick within his own party, because can’t dole out rewards and inflict punishment after 2008. Under normal circumstances this would be somewhat mitigated if it was widely believed that his vice-president would succeed him. However, no one thinks Cheney will run in 2008. Back in 2005 BushCo. released a trial balloon on a Cheney run this which didn’t have enough helium to stay afloat. Next up was Jeb. Earlier this year W tried to float that balloon.
    Apparently, that wasn’t too well received by McCain who has been playing footies with Rove and the Christian wingnut in the hope of fulfilling his presidential ambitions. Now we have Jeb 0.2 McCain running mate and future BushCo. enforcer.

    Will this transparent game work?

  • Yes, but think of all the fun we’ll have talking about his shoplifter wife, his stalker son, and his drug addict daughter. First Family, indeed!

  • “I propose all three of them run for the Kennebunkport town council and create a shining city on a hill in the hinterlands of Maine.”

    As a native Mainiac, I beg you to put them in the local governments of Crawford or Midland, which are much more spiritually deserving of such demographic largesse.

  • As a central Florida resident, I will reiterate that Jeb is quite unpopular for a very large segment of our population. But he’s had a Repub legislature, and a compliant press that has downplayed his anti worker, pro corporation agenda (and Terri S, too).
    Yeah, he seems smarter than W, but I believe that about anyone posting here (so very few trolls!).
    I just hope that there are enough witnesses to his nose-candy days to ruin his hopes about the presidency.

  • While Jeb might consider being the veep in ’08, I have a gut feeling that the Republican strategists will know better than to put a Bush on the ticket. They know that this country will have “Bush fatigue” by ’08, and that they’ll have to wait for ’12 (if a Dem wins in ’08) or ’16 (if a Repub wins) before they can bring Jeb to the fore– probably with Liddy Dole as his veep, to boot! Luckily, by that point, we’ll trounce ’em with our winning Obama/Schweitzer ticket.

  • The Republican’ts are going to lose in 2008, and unlike the Doles, the Bushes are part of the Texas Mafia’s public face and aren’t going to be wasted on a failing bid. Jeb is scheduled for 2012. He has to suggest he’d do 2008 to be viable, though, so this speculation is not a surprise.

    I think the Texas Mafia is going to let McCain run with someone else as VP, get their asses whopped in leiu of the cruxification of Bush/Cheney, and then the Mafia will put forth their ticket in 2012…

    …just in time for the end of the world.

  • McCain might be that desperate to be president, but asking Jeb to his VP is a death wish. No way he’d live out his term.

  • “McCain might be that desperate to be president, but asking Jeb to his VP is a death wish. No way he’d live out his term.” – Sagacity

    And I was just thinking McCain would lock Jeb in the “Undisclosed Location” and visit him from time to time when he needs a whipping boy. You can bet with that combination, VP is going to go back to being worth a bucket of spit.

  • George Bush and John McCain have made a deal where McCain is backed ,behind the scences, by George&Company for the 2008 GOP nomination. McCain might even be VP by then! Part of the “gentlemen’s agreement” MIGHT include Jeb as “Honest John “McCain’s running mate in 2008.I’ve thought, for over a year ,that a deal between George and the Arizona Senator had been made ,with McCain being a Bush toady.But, it wasn’t until recenty that I felt that the deal might include the stipulation that Jeb MUST be on the ticket.

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