Posted on 03/24/2015 10:22:49 AM PDT by SJackson
In a testament to the potency of the topic in Republican politics, the former Florida governor’s campaign said that Baker — a close family friend over five decades — is merely one of “a wide range of advisers on foreign policy.”
“While he respects Secretary Baker, he disagrees with the sentiments he expressed last night and opposes J Street’s advocacy,” Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell wrote in an email Tuesday. “Governor Bush’s support for Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu is unwavering, and he believes it’s critically important our two nations work seamlessly to achieve peace in the region.”
Thank you very much. As far as we are concerned, any candidate who chooses to include anti-Jew or anti- Christian or anti-American “advisors” is definitely unworthy of our support. ( I don’t care how they try to excuse it — we’ve suffered greatly through six years of anti- Americanism, etc in the WH and we still have to survive somehow nearly two more years of this destructive hatred from “our” president. Dambed if we’re gonna support or vote for more of this same poison ).
Bakers longstanding history of hostility to Israel is factual. Had Jeb tapped Jimmy Carter, at least he could point to bi-partisanship.
That definitely leaves out Rand Paul.
Cruz is pro-Israel. Only an outsider is going to be pro-Israel right now.
Rand Paul is interesting, he is an intelligent person and makes some good sense on some thingss.....we kept getting interested in him...hoping he was different from his Dad (on defense and international relations matters). Unfortunately, while he is a bit more polished than Dad, he appears to be just about as undependable ... a chip off the old block, if you will. Unacceptable as an American president in this age of great peril (meaning just how vulnerable USA is now after 6 years of Obama undercutting our defenses and alliances). We will not be voting for Rand.
Cruz looks a lot more solid on these important concerns.
(As do a couple additional potential candidates.)
Thanks.
I'm told he was better received than Denis McDonough. Of course McDonough called for greater military spending to provide support for Israel, and talked about the vibrancy of Israeli democracy and our unwavering support for Israel's security, which wouldn't have been popular. Baker's claim that Israel is risking their democracy, and his recollections of things like not allowing Netanyahu in the State Department building, which would get applause. Haven't seen the text of Baker's remarks, maybe he alluded to these things too.
Do a search. There’s any number of articles on the subject. Of course, some were intended to smear the Bushes when they were in the White House, but there was a cozy financial connection.
One source, out of many:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
hoping he was different from his Dad (on defense and international relations matters).
From your link:
“George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.”
One share. He was one of seven directors in a company that merged with his company.
“According to journalist Joe Conason, Prescott Bush’s involvement with UBC was purely commercial and he was not a Nazi sympathizer.[9] The Anti-Defamation League[10] and historian Herbert Parmet[7] agreed with that assessment.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush
Its a foreign policy doctrine issue.
There are 3 foreign policy groups in the GOP: Realists, NeoCons, and isolationists. The isolationist have very little influence, so Realists and NeoCons are competing to influence policy. Usually, a GOP prez will appoint a Realist to the SoS job(Condi Rice, Colin Powell, james Baker, George Schultz, Gen Haig, Henry Kissinger) and National security Advisor(Condi Rice, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell, Bud McFarlane, Henry Kissinger) but give the SoD job to a NeoCon(Rumsfeld, Cheney, Cap Weinberger, Rumsfeld).
Jeb Bush has to court both the Realists and the NeoCons to imply that if he is elected, he will seek foreign policy council from both groups.
Jeb Bush is courting Realist James Baker this month, but last month he was courting the prominent NeoCon, Paul Wolfowitz, who worked for Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush and GW Bush. Paul Wolfowitz's protégé was Scooter Libby, who worked for Reagan, GHW Bush, and GW Bush.
Robert Zoellick was James Baker's protégé and worked for Reagan, GHW Bush, GW Bush, and then was hired by Romney to head up Romney's National security transition team, which means he might have been Romney's SoS. Romney was also courting Condi Rice and she could have been his SoS and Zoellick would have been Romney's SoD. Or, Zoellick could have been Romney's Sec Treasury, which is the 5th man on the national security council.
Meanwhile, in the dem party, there are Realists, Liberal Interventionists, and antiwar pacifists. The antiwar left doesn't have much influence so the Realists and the liberal Interventionists are competing to influence the dem prez.
So Obama had Liberal Interventionists like Hillary, Susan Rice, Samantha Powell, and Chris McDonough plus Realists like Bob Gates, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Ashton Carter, John Kerry, and George Mitchell.
Obama hired Mitchell to hold Israel's feet to the fire and twist Netanyahoo's arm. In 2011, Obama began his re-election campaigned so he fired Mitchell, and backed off Israel because he didn't want to end up like Carter. After getting re-elected Obama hired Kerry to hold Israel's feet to the fire and twist Netanyahoo's arm.
When they say "Wise Old Realists", they mean GOPers Kissinger, Scowcroft, Schultz, Baker, Lugar, plus democrats Brzezinski, Sam Nunn, & Lee Hamilton
The Iraq Study Group was co-chaired by two wise old realists, Baker and Hamilton, and two very prominent realists, Bob Gates and Leon Panetta, served in the group, and both would serve as SoD. When George Bush fired Rumsfeld, he first offered the job to Baker, who turned him down.
The Iraq Study Group(Realists), in 2006, served to get rid of the top three neocons working for Bush: Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Doug Feith, then pull George Bush's nuts out of the fire in Iraq
If they’d listened to Rumsfeld from the beginning instead of trying to nation build there would not have been a fire.
Naturally, we’re supposed to believe this from the son of “read my lips” Bush I.
It was Rumsfeld(and Cheney) who said that we could get by with the smaller and underwhelming military force in Iraq.
That was disputed by Gen Shinseki(Army Chief of Staff), who said a larger force would be needed.
Rumsfeld and Cheney attacked Shinseki for that and Bush fired him from his job. Of course Shinseki was right because Bush raised troop levels in 2007 to the level that Shinseki would be needed.
Because of that, Obama gave Shinseki the VA job but the GOP eventually got him fired from that job too.
James "Broken Record" Baker.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.