Jeb Bush on immigration minefield: "a lot of hair on fire right now. Mine isn’t.”

@MarcACaputo

Immigration is a minefield.

Jeb Bush stepped in it.

Bush’s new book, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, exploded on the political scene last week and left the former Florida governor uncharacteristically wobbly over how to legalize the status of the undocumented.

The controversy — and perhaps the book itself — summed up the politics of immigration: laden with political peril, nuance, seeming contradiction and complexity.

The book is also a point of departure for Bush’s political aspirations. He’s neither ruling out nor in a White House bid in 2016.

That invites more political scrutiny than Bush says he realized.

Jeb Bush, Miami GOP mourn passing of Mary Ellen Miller

Mary Ellen Miller, a revered Republican elder stateswoman who rose through party-activist ranks to twice chair the party in Miami-Dade County, died Wednesday at her Venetian Island home.

She was a dignified, private person who declined to discuss her illness, which took even close friends by surprise, according to Liliana Ros, a longtime GOP committeewoman and friend.

Often compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Miller advised Republican governors, local officials, members of Congress and the Florida Legislature.

She was known for being as discreet as she was connected. It’s said that she never spoke ill of anyone, even Democrats.

“Even after she retired, we still went to her,’’ Ros said. “She knew everything: state laws, party laws. She was very gentle, sweet. She had no ego, and that in politics that is very unusual. … She would get upset if you praised her.’’

Over the years, Miller supported Sen. Marco Rubio, former U.S. Rep. David Rivera, both Bush presidents, and former Gov. Jeb Bush, among others.

“Mary Ellen was a great Republican and an even finer person,’’ Jeb Bush, who’d been the county’s party chairman in the 1980s, wrote in an email. “No one worked harder. No one was more committed. You could count on Mary Ellen Miller, and everyone did.’’

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/07/3272439/mary-ellen-miller-former-chairwoman.html#storylink=cpy

 

Jeb Bush immigration stance "undercuts" reform effort, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham says

Huffington Post:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the members crafting an immigration bill in the upper chamber, said Tuesday that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's opposition to a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants could damage their effort.

"He has been a great voice on immigration, he has been a good governor, understands the Hispanic community," Graham told reporters. "I just think this proposal caught me off guard, and it undercuts what we're trying to do."

More here

A flip without the flop: Jeb Bush's immigration reversal slight, but still consistent overall

@MarcACaputo

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has reversed himself on immigration when it comes to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. As the story below points out, he backed his brother's proposal that offered such a path and he had made statements supporting it.

But when you look at the clearest solo statement, Bush always left wiggle room. In an interveiw with Charlie Rose, Bush said he backed a pathway to citizenship OR residency. Conjunctions are important.

“You can’t ignore it, and so either a path to citizenship, which I would support — and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives — or ... a path ... to residency of some kind," Bush said. A Newsday article last year said he backed a path to citizenship, but it had no quotes.

So this doesn't look so much like a flip flop as a flip. It's not so much a zig zag as a zig.

This morning, on Morning Joe, Bush seemed to slightly reverse his slight reversal. That seems to bring him back to where he was before. Here's what he said:

“If you can craft that in law where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn’t an incentive for people to come illegally, I'm for it. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know see you do it. But I'm not smart enough to figure out every aspect of a really complex law."

So to recap: Bush had said he was for either a path to citizenship OR residency. Then he said he favored a path to residency because he thought a citizenship-path would be an illegal-immigration magnet. Then he said he was for a path to citizenship if it wasn't an illegal immigration magnet. But he couldn't figure out how that could be.

It's a complex answer to a complex problem. It is nuanced. It is ripe for parsing. And it certainly looks like Bush is trying to please all sides. But then, politicians do that. But then, Bush has held himself up as the no-longer-politician who straight talks instead of giving nuance. Now he's seriously nuanced. He sounds wobbly. That's open season in today's media environment. And TPM didn't miss a beat.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/04/v-fullstory/3266978/jeb-bush-no-citizenship-path-for.html#storylink=cpy

Caveat: Bush said yesterday: "Read the book." I haven't yet (thanks for not sending an advanced copy to your hometown paper). So until we go through it, we're reacting to snippets and reactions to reactions of snippets.

Then there's the matter of Bush running for office in 2016. Previously, folks who knew him and Sen. Marco Rubio Rubio said Bush wasn't seriously considering a bid and Rubio was. But Bush's latest position has them reconsidering how Bush is positioning himself. And some Romney folks just aren't happy.

Here's today's story

Jeb Bush immigration reversal? No citizenship-pathway for the undocumented. Pulling a Romney?

@MarcACaputo

The Huffington Post obtained a copy of Gov. Jeb Bush's new book on immigration -- and it indicates the former Florida governor has reversed himself when it comes to granting a pathway to citizenship for those illegally in the country.

The revelations angered top advisors to Mitt Romney, who felt that Bush went out of his way to make statements during the campaign that undermined the former Republican presidential candidate's campaign by seeming to urge a softer approach to immigration.

"Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?" said one advisor."He spent all this time criticizing Romney and it turns out he has basically the same position. So he wants people to go back to their country and apply for citizenship? Well, that's self deportation. We got creamed for talking about that. And now Jeb is saying the same thing."

Asked to respond, Bush said by email: "i am not advocating self  deportation. read the book."

The book isn't out yet. So it's unclear what specifically Bush was advocating for and against.

From a marketing perspective, it's a good move for Bush. It gets people talking about his book. It also gets people wondering if he's covering his right flank and is therefore more-serious about running for president in four years.

Excerpts from HuffPo:

WASHINGTON -- In a new book, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) makes a notable reversal on immigration reform, arguing that creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would only encourage future unauthorized immigration.

"It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences -- in this case, that those who violated the law can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship," Bush and lawyer Clint Bolick argue in a new book, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution. "To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship."....

They don't fully rule out citizenship, however, despite what that sentence implies. Although Bush and Bolick state there should be no special pathway, they say undocumented immigrants should be allowed to go through normal channels to naturalize by going to their native country to apply. That process currently requires three- or 10-year bars and no guarantee of return, making it untenable to many undocumented immigrants.

Bush gets real with Gaetz on education reform, coy on future

Before a meeting with Senate President Don Gaetz on Thursday, former Gov. Jeb Bush said he believed the parent trigger bill introduced this week would pass.

"As I understand what the law is, it’s a pretty simple law,” Bush said. “If you’re in a failing school, parents oughta have the ability, if they want to, to have a say, simply a say, in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take. That doesn’t say they can do like in California where they can convert a charter school or do something else, it simply says parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”

A bill filed this week by Kelli Stargell, R-Lakeland, would allow parents at failing schools to choose a strategy to turnaround a school via a petition. One option could allow the school to be converted to a charter school. A similar bill was defeated last year, but Bush said he thinks this year it will pass. 

Earlier on Thursday, Bush met with House Republicans and Speaker Will Weatherford. Reporters didn’t speak to him at that event, and were only able to ask a couple of questions before his meeting with Gaetz.

Bush hasn’t visited the Capitol since 2010, so he was asked why he was meeting with lawmakers. Bush said as the head of the non-profit Foundation for Excellence in Education, he was there to “say hello to friends and advance the cause of rising student achievement.”

Jeb Bush visits with Weatherford and House Republicans

Former Gov. Jeb Bush met with Florida House Republicans on Thursday, but what he told them is pretty much hush hush because the meeting was held behind closed doors with reporters stuck waiting outside.

“It was a really good talk,” said Rep. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral, as he walked out. “He spoke on immigration reform and the importance of being inclusive.”

Bush was invited by House Speaker Will Weatherford, who worships him as his political model.

“I don’t know if you’ll find a bigger Jeb Bush fan than me,” Weatherford said. “We were honored that he took this much time to be here today.”

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said he had about 10 minutes to talk with Bush for he spoke to the 76 Republicans in the House. He said's always enjoyed a special relationship with Bush.

"He’s always allowed me to have access to him, whether it’s on the phone or in person to seek his advice and counsel," Weatherford said. Thursday was no different.

“I wanted to get his thoughts,” Weatherford said. “We had a really good candid conversation.”

About what, however, Weatherford wasn’t saying. Specific issues that promise to be hot topics this session weren’t necessarily covered, he said.

 Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal to give teachers an across-the-board pay hike of $2,500?

“I don’t know if we talked specifically about the teacher pay raise,” Weatherford told reporters. “I think the governor certainly is in favor of paying teachers more, but I think, like the House, he’s also in favor of merit pay. He has a history of supporting that. But you’d have to ask him.”

Reporters would have, but, as they spoke to Weatherford, Bush slipped out another door.

Weatherford said he did have a moment to talk generally about the budget.

“I gave him an update on where we are in the budget and that we actually have a surplus for the first time in six years,” Weatherford said. “He had that nice exit where he had a $5 billion surplus and then a $6 billion surplus and it’s been tough sledding since then and this is the first year we’ve had any wriggle room so we joked about that. It was a great conversation.”

What about pension reform, the parent-trigger bill, teacher evaluations?

“We didn’t talk specifically about proposals,” Weatherford said. “We didn’t have that much time, he was a little late getting here and he had to speak before the body so I didn’t want to hold him up and have everyone waiting here.”

As for the speech, like the other Republican lawmakers who spilled out of the conference room at around noon, Weatherford gave it high marks.

“He just talked about being bold,” Weatherford said. “Being willing to take risks. Being willing to really fight for the issues that matter and to be prepared. It’s a battle of ideas. We can’t just show up to the battle without any ideas. We can’t just say no. We have to be willing to offer our own solutions, and that’s what he did as governor.”

Bush also told the crowd another important piece of news. His new book on immigration reform is out on March 1.

 

 

 

 

'Parent trigger' is back for round two

Narrowly defeated in the Senate last year, charter school management organizations and conservatives are ready to push so-called “parent trigger” legislation once again.

Part of the reason advocates are taking another stab at what they prefer to call the “parent empowerment” law is because last year’s tie vote that killed the bill was partially blamed on in-fighting among Republican senators. However, there has since been turnover in both chambers with Democrats gaining seats. That makes “parent trigger” an even tougher battle this session.

Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, filed SB 862 today. It is similar to the final version of last year's failed SB 1718. The proposal would allow parents at failing schools to choose a turnaround strategy for the school by signing a petition. One option, of course, is to convert the school into a charter school.

SB 862 allows local school boards to choose the option it thinks is best for students even if they disagree with what parents indicated. However, the state Board of Education can override that and side with parents. Stargel said she agreed to sponsored the legislation in the Senate (a House version is expected soon) because as a parent of five chilren she believes in its mission.

Noting how similar the bill is to last year's version, she said she doesn't plan any major changes in strategy for getting it passed. "Some of it was on the policy, a lot of it was based on politics," Stargel said about last year's failed effort.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education or state-based Foundation for Florida's Future along with charter school management organizations are expected to be major proponent of the bill.

The Marco Rubio-Jeb Bush-voucher connection

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio immediately followed his rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday night by releasing a “school-choice” bill to allow taxpayers to subsidize private-school education for poor kids.

By putting legislation where his mouth is, Rubio wanted to reinforce the theme of his speech — that conservative policy is good for the poor and working class.

The legislation, which revolves around tax credits, also makes good on a 2010 Rubio campaign pledge, and reinforces his strong ties to former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, his friend and mentor whose nonprofit education foundation helped shape the legislation.

Q Poll's beauty-show survey: ugly for GOP, ok for Rubio, blah for Obama, great for Hillary

Quinnipiac's latest national survey is what's known as a beauty contest; 2016 is a long way off. But who's hot and not?

President Obama is losing points; with 46 percent approving of his job performance while 45 percent disapprove. That's a big change from his December 53-40 rating.

But the poll is downright ugly for the GOP.

Except for Sen. Marco Rubio, every one of the big-name Republican figures polled (including former FL Gov. Jeb Bush) is viewed negatively. About 27 percent view Rubio favorably while 15 percent view him unfavorably. That means Rubio's favorability index is 12. Bush is -4. Paul Ryan: -2 (an inside-the-error-margin amount).

But a full 57 percent don't know enough about Rubio. Expect that to change as 2016 draws nigh (and, yeah to call it early is an understatement).

Rubio gives the GOP State of the Union rebuttal on Tuesday. Republicans (and Time magazine) view him as their savior when it comes to immigration in the short-term and, perhaps, Hispanic voters in the long term.

Democrats won't t just sit by. They're going to start trashing him (just watch MSNBC).

Republicans are trying to negatively define former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, who was in office during the 9/11/12 Benghazi attacks in Libya and the rise of militant Islam in North Africa.

So far, the GOP attack machine hasn't worked; 61 percent viewing her favorably and 34 percent unfavorably. The 27 favorability index is the highest in the poll. The others in the black are all Democrats: Clinton's successor, John Kerry (at 10) and VIce President Joe Biden at 5.

poll here