The Beginning of the End for Trump? The Donald Signs RNC Loyalty Pledge

Hated insurgent Donald Trump has finally bowed to pressure and signed off on the Stalinist loyalty oath concocted by the Republican party establishment. The pledge was delivered to him by RNC boss Reince Priebus who was under mounting pressure by the big money donors to bring the bombastic billionaire outsider to heel. How the pledge will affect the Donald’s lead in the polls and whether it will give the green light for the entire stable of establishment candidates to go for his throat has yet to be seen. However, to those who ardently supported him due to his independent status, the agreement to not run as a third-party candidate and support the nominee – effectively surrendering his leverage –there has to be more than a bit of a feeling of betrayal.

Trump’s acceptance of the new rules of engagement are reported by CNN in the story “Donald Trump signs RNC loyalty pledge”:

Donald Trump has signed the pledge.

The Republican presidential front-runner met privately with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Thursday afternoon, and soon after, came out to the lobby of Trump Tower to declare that he has signed a loyalty pledge. This means Trump has promised to support the party's eventual nominee -- whoever that may be -- and that he will not run as a third-party candidate.

"The best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge," Trump said, holding up the paper. "So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and for the conservative principles for which it stands."

He added: "We will go out and fight hard, and we will win."

All 17 Republican presidential candidates have now pledged to support the GOP's eventual presidential nominee, Priebus announced Thursday evening in a statement, billing it as a sign of "party unity."

But if Trump's official declaration of allegiance to the party serves to calm the nerves of establishment Republicans -- at least for now -- it could also invite backlash from some of the bombastic candidate's die-hard supporters.

Trump has propelled himself to the top of the polls by casting himself as an anti-establishment, outsider candidate, railing against career politicians and the Washington political class.

Signing an RNC pledge complicates that image.

The enthusiasm that Trump brought to a large segment of the party base struck mortal terror into the hearts of Priebus and the elite who much like the Democrats with Queen Hillary had already decided on their 2016 standard bearer “Jeb!”. Now a lot of those folks are naturally going to feel that they have been sold out again with the memory of the Boehner-McConnell backstabbing of November 2014 still fresh in their minds. While the Trump public relations team talked it up as a victory it may soon prove to the moment when the wave crested and then began to recede as the establishment has reasserted control over the process.

I Pledge Allegiance to Jeb!: RNC to Introduce Loyalty Oath to Address Trump Problem

The Republican National Committee, under increasing pressure from the big money donors has now apparently decided to confront the Trump problem head on. According to multiple media sources the party power brokers have decided to implement a loyalty oath to be taken by every one of the seventeen candidates to swear to not mount an independent bid and to essentially pledge allegiance to Jeb!. The oath is the most serious effort yet to sink the renegade campaign of billionaire Donald Trump and get on with the business of forcing the Bush restoration down the throats of voters.

As reported by Politico “GOP Circulates Loyalty Pledge to Box Trump In”:

The GOP is taking its most aggressive step yet to force Donald Trump's hand.

The Republican National Committee on Wednesday privately reached out to GOP presidential candidates to ask whether they’d be willing to sign a pledge stating they would not run as an independent candidate in the event they fail to win the Republican nomination in 2016.

The move is an implicit challenge to Trump, who pointedly refused to rule out a third-party run during the first GOP debate. He was the only candidate who declined.

The language of the draft pledge speaks directly to the issue vexing Republicans – the possibility that the billionaire could choose to wage a third party bid if he fails to win the GOP nomination, a prospect that could seriously damage the GOP’s prospects of reclaiming the White House. Tapping into deep anti-establishment animosity among the conservative grassroots, Trump has surged to the lead of the deepest presidential field in recent memory. If Trump were to pull just a fraction of the vote as an independent, write-in or third party candidate, it could be enough to sink the eventual Republican nominee.

“I [name] affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the pledge reads. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

It is a damning indictment of our already dysfunctional democracy when it has come to the establishment demanding loyalty oaths to prevent any serious outsider from challenging the existing racket. According to some sources, Trump will agree to the demands of RNC boss Reince Priebus and the paymasters which would represent an enormous tactical blunder on his part. He may be leading the pack now, but signing off on such a deal would make it far easier for him to be Bushwhacked. There is an old saying that one should never give an enemy the knife that they will use to cut your throat with and by taking the pledge the Donald is doing exactly that.

Bandito Bush Attacks El Diablo Donald Trump En Espanol

Looking to prove that he isn’t a spineless, whishy-washy marshmallow candidate, John Ellis Bush aka “Jeb!” has gone into attack mode against Donald Trump. Following the launching of a new negative advertising campaign, Bush V.3 made an appearance in heavily Hispanic Miami where he tore into the Donald en español. The big donors were getting restive about the inability of Jeb! to be running away with the Republican race despite his famous family brand name and must have put the cattle prod to his ass because he is now in full attack mode. When it comes to pandering to Latinos Bush has no peer with the exception of neocon favorite Marco Rubio, and he was preaching to the choir at the La Progresiva Presbyterian School on Tuesday.

As reported by the Washington Post in the story “Jeb Bush slams Donald Trump in Spanish over his ‘barbarities’”:

Jeb Bush is "en el ataque."

That's Spanish for "on the attack" -- and the former Florida governor certainly is, as he confronted and mocked businessman Donald Trump in English and Spanish on Tuesday.

Trump now enjoys a commanding lead over rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, while recent polls suggest that Bush is on a precipitous decline in Iowa -- where he sits in the single digits -- and in New Hampshire. A Granite State poll released on Tuesday showed Bush slipping into the single digits there for the first time.

The Bush campaign released a new 80-second Web video on Tuesday that strings together clips from interviews Trump has done over several decades that show him praising Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and voicing support for abortion rights, tax increases on wealthy Americans and the 2009 economic stimulus program.

After a town hall meeting at a Presbyterian school here, Bush explained his decision to go on the offensive, using explanations he's voiced before in English. But in Spanish, in response to questions from Spanish-speaking reporters, his tone and choice of words was sharper.

"He attacks me every day. He attacks me every day with barbarities," Bush said in Spanish in response to a question. "They’re not true. What we did today was to put out in his words to show that he’s not conservative. He supports people like Nancy Pelosi. He’s given money to Hillary Clinton. He was a Democrat longer than Republican. He’s said that he’s more comfortable being a Democrat. He doesn’t have a record, because he hasn’t been a person who has served like me, who served for eight years as governor. He’s not a conservative. That’s my point."

"He’s not conservative. He doesn’t have a career that you could say is conservative," Bush said later in Spanish.

But El Busho is hardly a “conservative” either. Rather he is just one more RINO who has hijacked the word conservatism as a vehicle for his own political ambitions and when it really comes down to it, the only substantive difference between himself and Hillary is a set of cojones. 

The Republican establishment seems to have settled on attacking Trump as not being a conservative and putting together clips of past statements to show that he is more closely aligned with Nancy Pelosi than Ronald Reagan. This is very hazardous because people do evolve in their views, hell Reagan himself was once a Democrat and even campaigned for Harry Truman and trashed Republicans. Focusing too much on Trump's past statements could not only alienate his supporters and force him into running as an independent but could ultimately attract those Democrats who would rather drink turpentine than line up behind Mrs. Clinton. It is playing with fire or as Jeb! would put it mucho caliente.

Whoops: Super PAC’s Iowa Mass Mailing Flyer Has Jeb! With One Black Hand

Establishment golden boy John Ellis Bush aka “Jeb!” has had a rough go of it so far in the early going of the GOP primary season. The family brand name has been trumped by the Donald and the former Florida governor has been struggling to gain traction in the polls. One big problem with Dubya’s younger brother is that he doesn’t have any of his notorious sibling’s personality and that has contributed to lackluster performances in the debates and on the stump that have alarmed donors.

Mr. Bush has been cranking up his condemnations of Donald Trump as of late – primarily lame Frank Luntz style bullshit accusing him of being a Democrat – and is even starting to flip-flop on his “moderate” immigration stance. So considering that he has enough trouble already it hardly behooves him that his Super PAC has just made a major error in a mass mailing to thousands of people in all-important Iowa.

The Bush Super PAC, Right to Rise, has to be looking for some new Photoshop experts this morning after the embarrassing mailing of 85,000 flyers to Iowans incorrectly shows the king in waiting with one black hand. With the money that must have gone into the mailing you would think that it would have been scrutinized a bit better by the quality control folks.

As reported by NBC News in the story “Jeb Bush Super PAC Mailer Has Awkward Photo Goof”:

Well, this is awkward.

The Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise sent a mailer to more than 85,000 Iowa voters, but something is a bit off in the photo of the group's favorite 2016 presidential nominee.

The group also tweeted the photo as a teaser for the mailer. Take a close look at Bush in the second photo of their tweet and you'll see that his left hand appears several shades darker than the rest of his skin.

Liberal news blog ThinkProgress accused the group of superimposing the GOP nominee's head onto the body of a black man, while TIME pointed out the background in the picture is actually a stock photo of Cedar Rapids.

Perhaps it is Bush's entire body pasted onto the stock photo and the mailer's creator just got a little carried away with Photoshop's Burn tool, which is used to darken parts of an image. Whatever the case, it appears to be a pretty big Photoshop fail on someone's part.

For “Jeb!” it is another problem that he doesn’t need as his organization is working desperately to overcome his underwhelming performance so far. It also can’t exactly be bolstering the confidence of Iowans who are placed on a pedestal by the national media for their titanic importance in setting the course for the other 49 states in the presidential race. It’s not as if that photo op of Bush manning the grill to cook pork chops for the peasants wasn’t phony enough and now this ugly mistake gets delivered to their mailboxes – even Iowans may start thinking that something is amiss with this guy.

Jeb Bush in Full Damage Control Mode After James Baker Remarks on Israel

Republican establishment 2016 front runner Jeb Bush is already having to go into damage control mode over comments made by Bush family consigliere James Baker that were critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Baker, a former Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff who is widely touted as one of America’s most respected elder statesman came under fire for blasting Netanyahu during a speech in front of liberal Jewish group J-Street on Monday. Baker ripped Bibi over “diplomatic missteps and political gamesmanship” and his pre-election declaration that there would never be a Palestinian State on his watch.

According to the Washington Post in the story “Jeb Bush stresses support for Israel in wake of James Baker’s comments”:

Presumed Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says he disagrees with critical comments about Israel made Monday by former Secretary of State James Baker, according to his campaign team.

Baker, a longtime friend of the Bush family and an unpaid adviser to Jeb Bush's expected presidential campaign, has been an outspoken advocate for the former Florida governor's possible White House bid. Bush touted Baker's support last month when he announced a 21-member foreign policy advisory team that is counseling him as he prepares to run for president.

-And-

Baker spoke Monday night at a conference hosted by the left-leaning J Street Group, an Israeli advocacy organization comprised mostly of Democrats. During his keynote address, Baker recounted decades of tensions between American and Israeli leaders and expressed support for the Obama administration's ongoing talks with Iran.

Baker was notably critical of comments Netanyahu made in the closing hours of his reelection campaign last week, when the prime minister suggested that he no longer supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While Netanyahu’s bombastic statements have been in some quarters attributed to nothing more than political rhetoric and Israel’s leader has himself backed off on them, they have further contributed to the toxic relationship between him and Emperor Barack Obama. Baker also dared to defend Barry during the speech as well as to chastise Republicans for turning Israel – America’s most critical Middle Eastern ally – into a political football.  Much controversy over his lack of fealty towards Israel has dogged Baker in the past when he was once said to have remarked “fuck the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway”. He also has bragged about having Bibi banned from the State Department during Poppy Bush's presidency.

Aspiring Republican candidates will no doubt pounce on Baker’s remarks to attack Jeb Bush as not being sufficiently loyal to Israeli policies which is already being set up as a key litmus test by many strategists. It may possibly even be a chink in Jebba the Hutt’s armor that can be exploited. He will inevitably face negative comparisons to his younger brother Dubya and his wimpy father but the Baker affiliation may actually stick to the Teflon candidate. With the right kind of political operation the expressed anti-Israel sentiment of Baker – an integral member of that foreign policy dream team that Jeb was hailing – could be a dagger. This would especially be the case if combined with the inconvenient fact that Jeb’s grandfather Prescott Bush’s Union Banking Corporation was actually shut down for doing business with Hitler's Nazis during WW II.

If the third installment of the Bush Supremacy is to be avoided it needs to be attacked with hammer and tong before the big money really starts rolling in and the juggernaut becomes unstoppable. I hope that someone within the Ted Cruz and/or Rand Paul campaign organizations is paying attention because this is a golden opportunity to capitalize on anti-Bush sentiment.

Jeb Bush to Give Big Foreign Policy Speech

With Americans’ political choices in the 2016 presidential race having pretty much already been made for them – Bush III or Clinton II – it is now up to the candidates to craft their sales pitches. While neither one will differ drastically from the other in terms of endless foreign entanglements, banker bailouts, mass surveillance, the war on civil liberties and amnesty for illegals it is all a matter of packaging. While Hillary lays low in the weeds - a luxury in that she has no competition from other Democrats – Jeb is going to have to actually go out and hit the cornbread and rubber chicken circuit to sell his policies.

Reuters is reporting that Jeb is doing just that in what is billed as an “exclusive” on his first major foreign policy speech in the story “Republican Jeb Bush to lay out case for stronger U.S. role in world”:

The United States needs to regain its leadership role in the world, Republican Jeb Bush will say in a speech on Wednesday, while asserting that President Barack Obama has been inconsistent and indecisive in carrying out American foreign policy.

Bush's speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs will be his first major foray into foreign policy since he announced in December that he is considering a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

“The great irony of the Obama presidency is this: Someone who came to office promising greater engagement with the world has left America less influential in the world,” Bush will say, according to speech excerpts that were provided to Reuters.

The former Florida governor is casting a wide net for advice on national security. An aide provided to Reuters a diverse list of 20 diplomatic and national security veterans who will be providing informal advice to Bush in the coming months.

Many of them are from past Republican administrations, including those of his father and brother, former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as that of Ronald Reagan.

Jeb’s gaggle of foreign policy and national security advisors include the likes of James Baker III, Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Chertoff, Tom Ridge, Stephen Hadley, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden. Paula Dobriansky and Robert Zoellick. It is fair to say that a Jeb Bush regime would represent a return to the era of the neoconservatives and the first George W. Bush term. Jeb is essentially putting the band back together again.

This doesn’t bode well for the financial prospects of Americans in that counter to the post-World War II conventional wisdom that war is good for the economy it only applies to the connected insiders. The gravy train will be running at full speed under Bush III and the key will be selling a “stronger America” to an electorate that if it understands nothing else it understands that Obama’s foreign policy has been an aimless and ineffective mess. But what can you expect when you bring in John “Skull and Bones” Kerry, Susan Rice and Samantha Power as your heavy hitters. The Bush collection of neocons can be called many things but incompetent is not among them.

This is not a good thing for average Americans and with Jeb already staking out a very muscular foreign policy vision it will be incumbent upon Hillary – no shrinking violet – to present an even more bellicose vision of a “stronger America”. None of this hogwash about American having a “stronger role” in the world does one damned thing to address the very serious problems in The Homeland. The reality is that America is now a land of a rigged financial system that is unable to function without government backstopping, ever increasing mass surveillance, diminishing civil liberties, crumbling infrastructure, lousy jobs (thanks to offshoring and importing illegal aliens) and dismal hopes for future generations.

Neither Jeb Bush nor Hillary Clinton represent anything short of a strengthening of a status quo grown fat and powerful off of cashing in on the never ending Global War on Terror (GWOT).  In a true and functional democracy – we no longer live in one – voters would have a choice that offers more difference than a taste test between Coke and Pepsi.