This is the kind of thing that can only happen when a politician is on the ropes and the last vestige of a sense of shame has vanished. A Jeb Bush Super PAC is running an ad in Iowa, titled “Weathervane”, which, as bizarre as it sounds attacks Florida Senator Marco Rubio for his former stance on immigration… a stance which was pretty much held by Jeb Bush until the wind changed direction.

Transcript:

“Marco Rubio; he ran for Senate saying he opposed amnesty. Then he flipped, and worked with liberal Chuck Schumer to co-author the path to citizenship bill. He threatened to vote against it and then voted for it. He supported his own DREAM Act and then abandoned it. Marco Rubio, just another Washington politician you can’t trust,” the voiceover says as the spot closes. “Jeb Bush, he’s a leader, so you always know where he stands.”

This is really insane. I understand that Rubio was sucked into the Gang of Eight nonsense as part of McConnell’s strategy of co-opting conservatives by giving them a taste of power. (This worked out much better than putting Ted Cruz in the NRSC.) The fact that Rubio has learned from the experience and changed his view is, to my mind, a feature not a bug. We need leaders that can absorb new information and adjust to a changing set of facts on the ground.

The odd thing is that it was Jeb Bush who lectured us all on how illegal immigration should be seen as an “act of love.”

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said Sunday that many who illegally come to the United States do so out of an “act of love” for their families and should be treated differently than people who illegally cross U.S. borders or overstay visas.

This attack by Bush’s Super PAC is duplicitous and false. It serves no purpose beyond damaging Rubio in a primary that Bush has no hope of winning.