The Desperation of Jeb Bush on Display

We've all known for a while now that Jeb Bush has a problem in his quest to be the third Bush president. It's not only the legacy of his father and brother he has to contend with. He also holds views that are anathema to the lunatic wing of the Republican Party.

One of those challenges has to do with what he thinks we should do about immigration reform. A few weeks ago he went beyond his usual position of providing guest worker status to the 11 million undocumented workers in this country and actually said he would support the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate last year (the one that provided a pathway to citizenship).

Since that bill is also President Obama's position on immigration reform, it compounded Jeb's challenge. Not only is his position on immigration a problem, he can't run for the Republican nomination and be seen to agree with this President on anything. So what's a brother to do?

In an interview with National Review's Rich Lowery, he came up with an interesting dishonest approach.

Jeb Bush warned Thursday that President Obama and Democrats would rather keep immigration reform as a political wedge issue than solve the problem — and that Republicans will always lose the political argument on immigration if the dynamic persists.

‪“By doing nothing, you have two things that happen, at least in the age of Obama,” the former Florida governor said during a National Review event in Washington, D.C. “You have a president who uses this ... as a wedge issue, and we always lose.

‪“Delaying this is what (Obama) wants,” Bush added. “He doesn’t want immigration reform.”

I'd score that one a 7 for creativity and a -10 for honesty. It also puts to lie something Jeb said in his first major speech of this campaign.

Two people can disagree and they can disagree vehemently. But if they see in each other an honest broker motivated by good intentions and sincere beliefs, they can find accommodation.

What Jeb Bush is finding out is that this is what happens to those who seek the nomination of a party that has become beholden to the lunatics in their midst rather than calling them out...you get desperate and say really stupid stuff.