Hullabaloo

Sunday, March 10, 2013

 
Jebbie's roadshow

by digby

It turns out that Jebbie is out of practice (or overrated to begin with.) TPM provides a timeline on his epic flip-flop on immigration in which he now says that he wrote in his book that he was against a path to citizenship in order to persuade conservatives to back a path to citizenship during the election season. Now it's no longer necessary because after the big defeat in November so many Republicans have come over to his side. (If you can figure out what his side really is ... ) He was all over TV this morning selling this bizarre story.

But guess what? According to the TPM timeline during the election campaign Jeb was for a path to citizenship. And as recently as last week he was saying that he had changed his mind!

March 4, 2013
In a shocking reversal, Jeb Bush gives an interview to Matt Lauer to preview his book “Immigration Wars: Forging An American Solution,” in which he reveals he no longer supports a path to citizenship, instead favoring permanent legal status for the undocumented. He warns “if we’re not going to apply the law fairly and consistently then we’re going to have another wave of illegal immigrants coming in the country.”

It's not just a matter of lagging publication dates or the November results changing the need to "bring Republicans around", as they've tried to spin it. Six days ago he was on TV saying publicly that he was against a path to citizenship. He should have known better.

I have no idea if this is going to hurt his changes for 2016 (zzzzzz....) but it tells me that he is very much off his game. If he was going to repudiate what he wrote in his book now that the Republicans have allegedly "come around" it sure was odd for him to endorse what he said just a week ago.

But it's always possible that Jeb's never been as good as everyone always said he was. It may just have been the contrast with Junior that made him seem that way.

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digby 3/10/2013 11:59:00 AM