Dubya Comes Off The Sidelines To Fundraise For Battleground GOP

The Dallas fundraiser was Pineapple Polo Realness, an event where John Cornyn played host to a few favorite, careful GOP Senate candidates. The list goes Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio. That is a stable full of solidly respectable Republicans. But the names missing are the news. George W. Bush came off the sidelines, reached back into his old donor Rolodex, and made sure his little handpicked squad got the cash. This isn’t party unity. It’s a family grudge.

Let’s be plain about why the notable exception is notable. Bush won’t lift a finger for the candidates President Trump endorsed, the ones who actually make Democrats sweat. Instead he warms up for Murkowski and Collins, folks who spend more time apologizing to the other side than winning arguments. Helpful money is helpful money, sure. But don’t pretend this is about battleground victory. This is about Bush still fighting a civil war he lost years ago in the GOP’s head, heart, and primary voters. He is using funnel cakes of establishment cash to keep his own brand of Republican alive.

The thing is, the party doesn’t need his blessing. The voters already chose an America First direction, and they keep choosing it. We’ll take the raising funds when it goes to any Senate seat, but we’re not naive about the transaction. Dubya isn’t coming back to save the team. He’s coming back to settle a score. The rank and file remember the Bush years: big government, open borders, endless war, and a 2008 crash. That record still has no power to unite this party, and a fundraiser in Dallas doesn’t change the math. Sitting on the sidelines might have been his most useful contribution.