Ready for 45?

(New York Times) - JAMES BAKER can take credit for two presidencies and one vice presidency in the Bush family.

So it’s a tad ungracious for a Bush to take Baker to task.

At first Jeb Bush tried to distance himself from Baker distantly. He had his spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell, send an email to reporters the day after Baker — one of his foreign policy advisers and his dad’s best friend, campaign manager and secretary of state — gave President Obama some bipartisan backup on Israel. Speaking to the liberal Israel advocacy group, J Street, Baker faulted the “diplomatic missteps and political gamesmanship” surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu. Baker’s criticism of the abrasive Israeli leader he once banned from the State Department sparked a furor among Republicans who want a loyalty oath on support for the Jewish state.

Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and one of the neocon enforcers who agitated for W.’s blighted invasion of Iraq, threw down the tweet gauntlet the next morning: “James Baker & J Street. The anti-Israel pre-Reaganite GOP meets the anti-Israel post-Clinton left.” He also tweeted: “Whether Jeb disavows James Baker, & how quickly and strongly, could be an oddly important early moment in GOP race.” Read more.