海角大神

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are having a summit meeting this week, apparently. It鈥檒l be in Utah at an as yet-unspecified time. There鈥檚 no official word about the agenda, but the New York Times鈥� Jonathan Martin, who broke the story, writes that some party officials hope 鈥渢he two former governors will find a way to avoid competing presidential campaigns that would split the Republican establishment next year.鈥�

Good luck with that. Maybe they can negotiate ground-breaking superpower nuclear arms reductions at the same time.

What鈥檚 going on here? Nobody鈥檚 really saying. But it鈥檚 our guess that this is pushback from Bush鈥檚 camp against the surprising Romney talk of a possible third presidential race. Bushworld may use news of the meeting as a lever to try and get Romney to realize what they consider to be the futility of his continuing ambitions.

We say this because it seems to us the leaks revealing the confab came from Bush鈥檚 side. Stories in a number of outlets note that Bush proposed the meeting weeks ago, and that it's purpose was to thank Romney for his (past) party leadership. Why would a Romney aide describe Jeb鈥檚 intentions, especially without at least a bow to Mitt鈥檚? They wouldn鈥檛, probably. They certainly wouldn鈥檛 describe the meeting as 鈥渕uch like a recent Bush-John McCain meeting that took place at Bush鈥檚 request,鈥� as they did in CNN鈥檚 piece on the summit.

McCain is the GOP鈥檚 presidential nominee past. Somebody is implying that Romney is, too.

Also, a CBS reporter this morning just happened to run into Bush at the boarding gate of a DC flight to Utah. Asked whether the meeting was on, Bush said, 鈥淚 like to ski. I can鈥檛 comment,鈥� according to a tweet from CBS correspondent Julianna Goldman.

If Bush wanted to keep the meeting truly low-profile he could have avoided this encounter. Two words: private jet.

OK, we鈥檙e just speculating here. We鈥檝e been (very) wrong before. And it is true that party elders seem to be getting nervous about a Jeb-Mitt faceoff. The NYT story notes that the two men are calling the same fundraisers for support, sometimes only hours apart.

So some rich Republican could be pushing this meeting just to get some solution to a possible split in establishment support, which could lead to, say, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas winning the nomination.

But since Romney has started sounding as if he really might run again, lots of Republicans have been talking to the media to say why they think it鈥檚 a bad idea. John McCain鈥檚 daughter Meghan McCain, for instance, wrote a Washington Post opinion piece this week begging Romney to refrain from running for his family鈥檚 sake.

鈥淲hen I think about what they might go through again, if their father runs a third time, I shudder,鈥� writes McCain.

Not that Jeb Bush is lighting the GOP world aflame. Both he and Romney have actually experienced a dip in support in recent weeks, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this week.

So maybe this meeting isn鈥檛 about one of them standing down, but both of them standing up. Combining forces. Mitt/Jeb (or Jeb/Mitt) 2016!