The Jeb Bush Lobbyist Gambit

By: Jeffrey Lord

January 22nd, 2015



To borrow from Winston Churchill? Twice?

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

And this one: “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits—not animals…. There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

That first quote comes from Churchill’s famous thank you to the out-gunned, decidedly underdog Royal Air Force that kept the German Luftwaffe at bay during the Battle of Britain. The second quote was an ode to the human spirit in times of duty.

In today’s news about former Florida Governor Jeb Bush? The first Churchill quote might be re-cast this way:

Never in the history of Republican presidential politics has one man done so much to raise money from so few to alienate so many.

And the second quote? The second quote stands – and would revolve around very, very different understandings between the GOP Establishment and the party base of the word “duty.”

Here’s the Politico description of Jeb Bush’s determined effort – an apparent self-decided duty – to lead Washington elitists in an effort to defeat the GOP base – and lose again.

The headline and byline reads: “Jeb Bush courts D.C. lobbyists –His allies are being asked to raise $50,000 each for the likely 2016 hopeful.”

Present? “More than 30 association executives” herded into the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, including bigwigs for the Business Roundtable, the American Bankers Association, Airlines for America, the American Insurance Association; United States Telecom Association, the National Retail Federation, CTIA-The Wireless Association, the Edison Electric Institute, Ford, West Front Strategies, the American Continental Group; and Hewlett-Packard.

This is so far gone from the reality of everyday America, so far disconnected from the lives of everyday Americans Outside the Beltway as to be somewhere between pathetic and disturbing. It is the myth of moderation game, version 8.0.

Here’s a guy who wants to be President of the Washington Lobbyists Association…oops…sorry…President of the United States. And instead of showing up at gatherings of average, working Americans at, say the Iowa or New Hampshire Freedom Summits or the South Carolina Tea Party Convention where other GOP presidential hopefuls meet and greet average Americans, Bush makes his stand to a handful of elitist Washington lobbyists. An action that underlines his expressed intention to find a way to "lose the primary to win the general.” Which in turn not only tells the base of the GOP all they need to know about a potential ‘Bush 45,’ but sets the candidate up for an easy portrayal by Democrats as the kind of elitist candidate Americans love to hate. The Inside the Beltway candidate who is not only an insider himself but all too eager to sell out to the lobbyist crowd of special interests.

To understand how this works if you are not familiar with the Inside the Beltway Game, take a look at one of the attendees at the Jeb D.C. lobbyist gathering identified as “West Front Strategies.” The Hill noted that the firm revolves around a “prominent group of five lobbyists from law and lobby shop Blank Rome (that) has formed its own bipartisan boutique shop on K Street.” The group’s cutesy name, unoriginally if typically an insider’s reference to the view from the West Front of the US Capitol building is supposed to signal the influence of its members in the town’s various institutions. The firm’s members include a former chief of staff to a House Democrat, a “key aide” to “Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)”, a “policy staffer for House Republican leadership” plus alumni from the Bush 43 Justice Department and White House.

The Hill, while apparently unsure of the group’s clients, notes: “Lobbying disclosure records show that members of the new firm appear on contracts with Expedia, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, Comcast, Best Buy, T-Mobile and Prudential Financial, though it's still unclear who will be part of West Front's new client roster.” Yes – you read that right. Comcast – the owner of MSNBC, the Al Sharpton network whose CEO pals around with President Obama.

It needs to be said that there is nothing out of the ordinary here. This, in fact, is the way big government has shaped Washington. Which is exactly the problem. Firms like West Front Strategies are a dime a dozen in Washington, filled with ex-Republican and Democratic administration or Capitol Hill staffers, that frequently include former members of the House, Senate or the occasional ex-governor of either or both parties.

Which, in turn, has gradually created a considerable divide between the base of the GOP – the party of limited government – and the Inside the Beltway Washington Establishment crowd. What has happened is that the D.C. Insiders Crowd has no inclination, much less any serious intention, of limiting the size and scope of the federal government. Lifting the incredible financial burdens of working Americans caused by Big Government is just not something they’re into. For the perfectly obvious reason that they need big government to make the seriously good living made by Inside the Beltway types.

And there is Jeb Bush, quite openly seeking both allies and money from this crowd.

This divide has not gone unnoticed Outside the Beltway, to say the least. It has created a distinct “us versus them” atmosphere. – exacerbated when someone like Jeb Bush so blatantly lines up with “them.” Which in part helps explain the considerable popularity of potential presidential candidates with names like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Sarah Palin and perhaps others. In the case of Cruz, who is in the headlines repeatedly for his daily Senate battles with the Establishment, the more he is reviled by the Inside the Beltway crowd the more his popularity soars with the Outside the Beltway crowd.

Which brings us to these stories in the Politico and the National Journal where Jeb Bush is, in the words of the NJ story, “Selling Himself as the GOP's Working-Class Savior.”

One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the utter disconnect in the idea that a serious “working class savior” would be welcomed into the inner sanctums of K Street. It’s a safe bet that Jeb Bush didn’t stroll into this meeting and discuss his positive plans to, say, dismantle the Department of Education or the Department of Energy.


[excerpted, rest at link above]

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