"Fatuous & Furious" Hunkers down on the Jersey Shore as Winter Storm JEB! explodes over Iowa and New Hampshire

Nature threw floundering Chris Christie (one of the premier clowns in this year's political circus) a big old nor'easterly curve ball, forcing him to retreat from New Hampshire back to New Jersey so he can look Large and In Charge, and face down Jonas, just as another storm of epic proportions is about to break over the Granite State in his conspicuous absence.

That storm is the nihilistic, thrashing fury of a dying JEB! 2016 as it is scorned by media pundits and voters polled alike. JEB!'s Right to [Rule] Super PAC is unleashing its remaining tens of millions on a scorched earth campaign to destroy Rubio, Kasich, and Christie just as the Des Moines Register today endorsed Marco Rubio in the Republican caucus.  So desperate is JEB! to gain any advantage over his other Establishment rivals that he has trotted out his nonagenarian mother, the Dowager Queen Babs, to front a pitiful video plea in support of her "boy."  This same woman who last year exasperatedly told the nation it had had "enough Bushes."

JEB! apparently does not understand that such a move will make him look even weaker, and more petty and vindictive.  It's now really up to the blizzard of negative ads, and whether they can bury his "same lane" opponents, and make him the third man out in a three way race to a brokered convention.  If he can get that position, he might be able to use the party rules to steal the nomination away from Trump or Cruz, even if it destroys the party's chances in November, and drives Trump into an independent run.  The show may have just begun.

Why JEB! is out to destroy Marco Rubio

Hell hath no fury like a Bush Scorned!

(New York Post) - Democrats have spent years raging about the rise of super PACs and the millionaires and billionaires who fund them. Maybe they should start laughing instead, because the largest super PAC in history may come to be best known for taking down the Republican candidate who may have had the best chance to win in 2016.

On Thursday, we learned that 35 percent of the money spent so far by the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush has been used to target the candidacy of his fellow Floridian, Marco Rubio.

ADVERTISING

According to Jeremy Peters of the New York Times, the anti-Rubio ad buys by Right to [Rule] (R2R) have totaled a staggering $20 million...

There is method here. But there is also madness. And a kind of indirect patricidal fury.

The method is simple. Bush and Rubio are competing for the same type of voter in the same “lane,” and so Murphy wants the voters who prefer Rubio to change their minds and go for Bush. The R2R ads have highlighted Rubio’s missed votes in the Senate and the fact that he changed his position on immigration. (One also mocked Rubio’s boots.)...

And what’s been happening here is in part the flowering of a seed of rage that has been growing within the precincts of what insiders call “Jebworld” for a year.

I’ve been told by people in the know in Florida and elsewhere that Jeb’s campaign intimates (and Jeb himself, for all I know) believe strongly that, out of loyalty, Rubio should have passed on a 2016 run. Back in 1998, Jeb offered crucial support to Rubio at a very early stage in his career and along the way as well.

Rubio’s decision to run is therefore viewed as a deep personal betrayal. And I mean very, very deep — so deep that senior members of Bush’s staff last summer began calling Rubio “Judas.”

I’ve also heard that in attempting to raise new money for Jeb while Bush was sinking quickly in the polls a few months ago and convince others not to give to the other Floridian, Murphy was privately very clear that he was going to go for Marco’s jugular no matter what.

In other words: Maybe Jeb wasn’t going to be the nominee, but it for damn sure wasn’t going to be Marco, either. Read more.

The Problem With JEB! Bush’s Brain

Don't Blame Me This Time!

You knew it had to happen soon: Someone at Politico (or actually two someones, Anna Palmer and Eli Stokols) would get on the horn with some of the donors who poured more than $100 million into the Jeb Bush super-pac Right to [Rule] and would reliably hear and report some high-end bitching. And the object of this unhappiness was equally predictable: Right to [Rule] chieftain and longtime Republican campaign consultant Mike Murphy, who has burned through about half of the vast RTR war chest even as his candidate went from being the unquestioned front-runner to this feckless and much-ridiculed guy battling Chris Christie for fourth place in Iowa and running38 points behind a reality-TV star in the state he governed for eight years.

So "burned" is exactly how some of these contributors feel. And thus, they're not remembering Mike Murphy the alleged strategic genius, but instead Mike Murphy the man who talked Meg Whitman into spending upward of $150 million of her own money to run a hammerheaded ad campaign in 2010 that drove most California swing voters to start screaming "Enough!" at their TV screens well before Election Day. Suddenly every decision Murphy has made is suspect...
Read more.

JEB! Bush's New Boots Are Made for Mocking Donald Trump

(ABC News) -After Marco Rubio's apparent footwear faux pas, most candidates might have avoided anything to do with boots.

Not Jeb Bush.

The Republican presidential candidate, after his town hall at a Timberland headquarters here in Stratham, New Hampshire, decided to do a little shopping. When he emerged, he showed reporters his new pair of Timberland boots, size 12.

When asked if his boots had high heels, Bush demurred.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, smiling.

He did take an opportunity to distinguish himself from the front-running candidate.

“These boots will match up really well against the fine Italian shoes that Donald Trump wears with his Brioni suits and his $500 ties," he said, laughing.

Read more, and watch video of JEB! making a fool of himself.

JEB! is About to Unleash Goetterdammerung on the GOP

It's MY PARTY, or NO ONE'S Party!

(Tampa Bay Times) - JEB! Bush is in a unique position.

After strengthening his standing in the earliest voting states, he has a more credible path to the nomination than he has had for months.

At the same time, Bush is poised to inflict lasting damage on the establishment wing of the Republican Party and help deliver the nomination to Donald Trump. The former governor's allies already have spent $20 million on TV ads attacking onetime protege Marco Rubio, who sits in third place in most polls.

The fiercest battle within the Republican primary is the fight to emerge as the chief mainstream conservative alternative to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

New Hampshire is ground zero for the competition between Bush, Rubio, and Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and John Kasich of Ohio.

Bush, whose well-funded super PAC is spending millions on ads tearing down Rubio, Christie and Kasich, has the resources to survive a weak showing in New Hampshire, and his supporters doubt he would quit before the Feb. 20 primary in South Carolina.

He has built a campaign infrastructure in the Palmetto State and has the political network of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham behind him. Plus, the Bush family has a strong track record in the South Carolina. George W. Bush is expected to campaign with his brother there. Read more.

Does Jeb Bush Want His Family’s Help? It’s Hard to Say, Even for Him

JEB! Bush has once again demonstrated his "decisive" leadership qualities that are a genetic trait in the Royal Family.

(New York Times) - The question came from a self-proclaimed “Bush-o-phile,” and the answer offered a fascinating, if free-form, glimpse into Bush family dynamics.

Why, the voter asked, is Jeb Bush not using his father and brother — George Bush and George W. Bush, the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States — more on the campaign trail, to help him rise in the polls? (“Your polls not being higher than they are,” the voter prodded, helpfully.)

First, Jeb Bush tried the he’s-his-own-man trope. “People are going to vote for me,” he said, noting that he’s a “62-year-old man that has some life experience.”

Next, the former Florida governor tried the but-he’s-also-a-proud-Bushie response. “I’m proud of them, I’m not running away from them, that is total nonsense,” he said. “I’m not running away from my brother or my dad, but I know for a fact that I’m going to have to win this because I’m running for president and people have to have confidence that I have the skills to lead.”

Then he grew slightly philosophical. “And so, I spend time talking about my family in a loving way,” he said. “But you can’t ignore them because that’s weird. That’s kind of a strange thing. But you can’t over-rely on them either. There’s a balance.”

Moments later, Jeb Bush announced among the worst kept — but most closely guarded — secrets of his campaign: That his older brother George W. will likely soon be joining him on the trail. Read more.

"Battleaxe Babs" stars in new JEB! 2016 campaign video, pens letter for Jeb Bush: ‘I think he’ll be a great president’

Don't question my beautiful mind, boys!

The Bush Family "Enforcer" has emerged from her Kraken's Lair to do battle for the Crown Prince.

The Dowager Queen Babs, known in her family as "the enforcer," stars in a new video message for her son Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, becoming the first member of either of the family's presidential couples to so publicly speak out on his behalf. See it here.

Also, Friday, the campaign provided a copy of a hand-written letter by the former first lady. In the message, she explains that she initially didn't like her son's decision to run because "the sacrifice for his family was huge. I changed my mind as it became clear that he is needed. I admit to being prejudiced as I am his mother."