Jeb Bush watchers had been amazed and scratching their heads last week when Jeb came forward and placed himself squarely on the right of the immigration reform debate, outlining a flat no to a so-called ‘path to citizenship’.
Was he cleverly outmaneuvering the likes of Marco Rubio? Was this an ingenius bid to stomp into the 2016 presidential race? None of it seemed to make sense since Bush is or was a pro-immigration reform guy from a pro-reform political dynasty.
By the end of this week though it was looking like he was just off his game or even more comically that his book had simply gone to press while being an immigration hardliner was still good politics.
Well, now he’s admitted that the most embarrassing explanation is actually the real one. He’d probably take it back if he could but book’s take a long time to publish, so ….
This is from Michael Gerson’s column in the Post …
“It is really not surprising,” Bush told me. “The book was written last year in a certain environment. The goal was to persuade people against immigration reform to be for it. Since that time, eight of 100 senators have moved, and not much in the House. . . . When we were working on this, Marco Rubio wasn’t for a path to citizenship.”
So basically, hey, this is what was popular when I wrote it. What can I say?
