The Addled Geritol Wing of the GOP Is Firing Up the Jeb Money Machine

“Hey, he’s waited the longest!”

Jeb Bush’s fundraising operation is about to get serious.

Allies of the former Florida governor are planning to roll out both a leadership PAC and a super PAC in the coming days in an effort to lock up major donors and give pause to potential rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, according to several sources.

They say the two PACs are planning their finance teams, as well as first quarter fundraising events, including some in Florida and one in Washington before the end of the month.

The plan is a bold one that in some ways echoes — and updates — the aggressive pre-campaign fundraising approach taken by Mitt Romney ahead of his 2008 and 2012 runs.

It’s unclear how or whether the two pieces of the pro-Bush money machine will operate together, or to what extent the would-be candidate himself would be involved in them, since a host of complicated federal laws and regulations govern political action committees. Bush’s allies were under strict orders not to talk to the media about the planned PAC launches.

But such a set-up could potentially allow Bush’s supporters to raise huge contributions or secure pledges into a super PAC that could tout his attributes — or criticize potential rivals — before an official campaign launches. A leadership PAC, meanwhile, could accept smaller checks to fund a pre-campaign political operation.

Here we go again. Let’s let an inferior moderate candidate press an early financial advantage all the way to the nomination. That’s been a SPECTACULAR formula for decades now. The people who defend the GOP’s “next in line” approach to presidential elections will only give you a blank stare if you mention that the party has won the popular vote for the presidency exactly once in twenty seven years.

Once.

Were it not for the Supreme Court in 2000, the Dems might have run the table since Jeb’s daddy lost to a no-name governor because he sold out the base on taxes.

This is not the time to drown in a sea of milquetoast capitulation. The Republicans have an advantage and the attention of most of the American electorate. Perhaps they should use that advantage to push forward a bold leader.

Or lose to Elizabeth Warren.

More: Politico: Walker’s Inauguration Speech a Preview to ‘All-But-Announced Candidacy For President’