YOUR ARE A WELL KNOWN RINO WHEN YOU HAVE TO LIE LIKE DONALD TRUMP DID HERE!
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jeb Bush, eager to solidify his conservative credentials and mindful that he will need a broader coalition to win the White House, closed his speech to a Tea Party audience here Friday with a call to campaign everywhere.
"We need to make sure," said Bush, "that we start with the premise that people will embrace our philosophies – that they are conservatives, they just don't know it yet.
In a way, the line sums up the challenge Bush faces in a crowded Republican race for president. Conventional wisdom pegs him firmly as a moderate. The staunchly conservative record he built while governor of Florida predates the Tea Party and a growing demand for ideological purity from those who carry the GOP banner.
Bush's message: I'm conservative. You just don't know it yet.
"Talking is great, but doing matters a lot more," Bush told more than 3,600 Americans for Prosperity activists gathered for the opening of the two-day Defending the American Dream Summit at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Bush and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal were the first of five White House hopefuls to address the conference. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida are scheduled to speak Saturday.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a GOP candidate whose office is less than a mile away but whose support of Medicaid expansion has angered many conservatives, was not invited.
Americans for Prosperity, backed by Republican mega-donors Charles and David Koch, looms large as a major organizing network in the Tea Party orbit. For Bush, the invitation to speak was a huge opportunity in a race where his early-frontrunner status has evaporated and other candidates have stronger relationships with the Koch brothers.
"I started when I was governor with a billion dollars in reserves. When we ended, we had $9 billion in reserves," Bush said, touting his use of the line-item veto to curb spending. "We were frugal. We didn't say every problem has to be solved with government."
Bush, by emphasizing his fiscal conservatism and avoiding social and cultural issues that play big in primary contests, echoed Kasich in some respects. He called for a constitutional amendment that requires a federal balanced budget. Kasich, who as chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee in the 1990s helped put together the last balanced budget deal in Washington, has been championing that cause for months.
Bush's remarks received a polite reception and standing ovation from a tough crowd.
"If they're a RINO" – Republican in name only – "they may as well be on the other side," one activist was overheard grumbling as he walked in for Bush's speech.
And as Bush left the stage, two women shouted: "No Common Core!" – a protest against the education standards that Bush has supported but that many conservatives loathe.
Another reason some are cool to Bush: His family. He's the son and brother of past presidents, and Tea Party conservatives want something fresh.
"People are tired of Bush, you know?" Ramona Flaherty, an activist from Tennessee, said after listening to Bush and Jindal. "I loved both daddy and son, but another brother smacks of a dynasty. I'm more interested in new blood, new ideas."
National polls show Bush among the top four in a field of 17 prominent Republicans running for president. But Bush has lost ground to real estate mogul Donald Trump, a free-media magnet whose ability to tap into anti-establishment anger has propelled him.
Jindal is among the race's also-rans, polling in the low single digits at best. His conservative credentials are far less in doubt, though. Where a workmanlike Bush had to remind the crowd about what he has done, Jindal was able to serve up red meat with ease.
He took a hard line on immigration, drawing loud cheers when he told the crowd that his parents "came to this country legally" from India. Jindal also called for a full repeal of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
The audience showed more enthusiasm for Jindal than for Bush, and Jindal saw an opportunity to take a shot at his rival, who had been off stage for an hour. He criticized Bush for saying months ago that a Republican must be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general election – a philosophy that base conservatives find offensive.
"I disagree with that," Jindal said of Bush's remark. "Let me translate that. That is the establishment telling us, 'Conservatives, hide your beliefs. Hide your principles. Try to get the media, try to get the left to like you.' I'm here to tell you, folks, that never works."
Friday's program opened with entertainment worthy of a raucous wedding reception or NBA pregame introductions. Party music blared from the speakers. The activists, wearing creative and colorful T-shirts that advertised their states and blinking, glow-in-the-dark Americans for Prosperity bracelets, danced – some of them wildly – in the aisles.
Fireworks and flames shot up from the stage. And rhetorical bombs popped from the crowd hours into the program. A few isolated cries of "ISIS in the White House!" and "He's the enemy within!" rang out as Jindal accused Obama of being soft on "radical Islamic terrorism."
In his welcome remarks, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips acknowledged David Koch, seated in the audience, and triggered a huge standing ovation.
The gesture had a tone of defiance. Democrats and their allies have turned the Koch brothers into political bogeymen. The mere mention of their name is intended to rally partisans around the Democratic cause. Friday morning was no different. The Ohio AFL-CIO organized a march of 3,200 supporters toward the convention center.
"Ohio is ground zero for the GOP and Koch brothers machine from now through 2016, and as you could tell from the thousands of folks who showed up today, working Ohioans are ready to fight back," said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, who joined the march. "We don't want out-of-state billionaires coming into our state, spending millions of dollars undermining workers and wages and buying our elections."
Saturday's program will include U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican facing a tough re-election battle next year. Americans for Prosperity this week launched a $1 million TV ad campaign against Ted Strickland, Portman's likely Democratic challenger.
"While Republicans like Rob Portman are on the side of the Kochs," Pepper said, "Ohio Democrats, including Ted Strickland, are on the side of Ohio's working families."
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