Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, shown here in 2004 answering questions about Hurricane Charley, endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, ending speculation that he might be a dark-horse candidate. (Photo by George Armstrong/FEMA.)
By Howard Goodman
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Those pundits who have spent endless hours speculating that a hopelessly fractured and deadlocked Republican Party will miraculously save itself by backing, perhaps at a brokered convention in Tampa, Jeb Bush as a dark-horse nominee — they’ll have to find something else to talk about.
The former Florida governor roused himself from the sidelines today to endorse Mitt Romney, Tuesday’s decisive winner in Illinois, for president, and to urge the GOP to rally around the man whom Newt Gingrich sneeringly calls the “Massachusetts moderate.” In effect, Romney was telling Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul to declare game over. Or as Sun Sentinel editorial cartoonist Chan Lowe put it today, “to butt out, go home and settle for fatter speaking fees as a consolation prize. They’re hurting the brand.”
Bush’s endorsement helps cement his reputation as one of his party’s last remaining grownups of any standing — a role he rehearsed a couple of weeks ago when asked to comment on some of the wilder proclamations of Santorum and Gingrich.
“I used to be a conservative,” Bush told an audience in Dallas on Feb. 23 during a Q&A, “and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective, and that’s kind of where we are.”
Bush didn’t go anywhere near fear and emotion in his endorsement of Romney. This was an endorsement — a written statement and a tweet, but not a live appearance — that kept the excitement level dialed way down. In words that harkened back to a more genteel GOP that didn’t get feverish over reproductive rights, immigration or religion, Bush kept the focus solely on money matters, calling Romney “a leader who understands the economy, recognizes more government regulation is not the answer, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism and works to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to succeed.”
Bush had declared himself neutral during the Florida primary, causing political insiders to wonder why he chose today to throw his prestige behind Romney. Bush and close associates were mum about it, but Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza said one senior party operative gave him the rather half-hearted reason: “He’s lost any hope we’ll find anyone better.”
Cillizza, by the way, deemed Bush’s endorsement a very big deal, saying that if anyone is capable of getting Republicans to quit bloodying each other up, it’s the former Florida governor.
Here’s why: 1. He’s a member of the most powerful family in the Republican party. 2. He spent eight years as the governor of Florida, a critical swing state with a large Hispanic population. 3. He’s seen as the closest thing the party has to an honest broker, a guy driven far more by policy concerns than political ones and a guy who always has his eye on what’s good for the party.
This should, once and for all, squelch the hopes of all those who had been speculating about an imminent Third Coming of a Bush in the White House. For his part, Bush had always insisted he wasn’t interested in running this year, showing perhaps a shrewder instinct than his followers for how toxic his brother George’s two terms had left the family name. And it is hard to know how serious was the yearning for the younger Bush among actual voters. There is a “Jeb Bush 2012, Keep Hope Alive” page on Facebook. But it has only 1,606 “likes.”
What about Jeb as vice president? Wouldn’t this endorsement be an enticement for Mitt to select “the smart Bush brother” as his running mate?
Not likely. Chan Lowe says why:
First, it’s still too soon for anyone named Bush to run in a general election after the last debacle, and second, the party faithful who yearn for him to join Romney would openly wonder why the names on the ticket weren’t in reverse order. That kind of questioning would further lessen the party’s chances of victory in November, and one presumes that Jeb has spoken up for the good of the party.
However, there is still one Florida Republican whose hopes for high office in the executive branch are very much alive.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio this week announced that the publication date of his autobiography, An American Son, has been moved up to June 19, from October. That will put it in circulation before the August convention. It will also enable it to beat the decidedly unauthorized The Rise of Marco Rubio, a biography by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, which is set to appear July 3.
It was Roig-Franzia who last fall wrote that Rubio had embellished his family history, including the circumstances under which his parents emigrated from Cuba. Rubio fought back with a fierce op-ed piece, calling Roig-Franzia’s work “an outrageous allegation” and “an insult to the sacrifices my parents made to provide a better life for their children.”
Rubio’s book is being published by Sentinel, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) dedicated to conservative themes. The 41-year-old from Miami landed the deal after six publishing houses bid on the book in a weeklong auction, Politico reported.
Its sped-up publication is timed to increase the drumbeat for Rubio to be the pick for vice president.
“National interest in Senator Rubio keeps heating up and we want the book out in the world as quickly as possible. It’s important to the senator and to us that people hear his remarkable story, and that of his family, directly from him,” Sentinel said.