Jeb Bush Is Meaner Than He Looks

[Octafish]

11. ''When they were young, Jeb was somebody for George to torture.'' -- cousin John Ellis

From the So THAT's What Happened Department:

Bush brothers have a complex relationship, marked by fierce rivalry, wounded feelings

By MARK Z. BARABAK
Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2015

EXCERPT...

From early on the brothers forged strikingly different paths.

George W. Bush followed his father’s route through New England prep school and Yale, where he was an unimpressive student. After graduating, he eagerly partook of bachelor life in Houston — “I was a spirited lad,” he later said with wry understatement — and spent more than a decade knocking about the oil business, with middling success. Bush was married with twin daughters when he finally quit drinking, after a 40th birthday bash that was a haze, save for the hangover.

John Ellis Bush, by contrast, breezed through the University of Texas in 2 ½ years, married at age 21 and moved to Florida, partly because of the social ostracism faced by his wife, Columba, a native of Mexico. He became a father at 23 — the couple has three children — and grew rich in Miami’s booming real estate business. In the early 1980s, he became active in state Republican politics, helped along by the Bush name; his father was then vice president under Ronald Reagan.

SNIP...

Jeb — the sober, dutiful son — had always been the one expected to assume the Bush political mantle. George W. was good for laughs, but not a lot more. It was a shock then, both inside the family and out, when Jeb lost his race and George W. won. The latter kept eager track of the competition with his sibling, checking the private Florida polling each morning to see where his race stood compared with his brother’s.

On election night, George W. was struck that his parents seemed more upset about Jeb’s loss than happy for his victory. “Why do you feel bad about Jeb?” he asked his father during a phone call that has become political lore. “Why don’t you feel good about me?”

CONTINUED...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-bush-brothers-20150617-story.html#page=1

It is a thing of terrible beauty, reading between the lines to discern the coming pretzeldental narrative.

And that's how Jebthro got mean.

PS: Most importantly, thank you for another oustanding OP, seafan. I'd call it kryptonite, but that's what clobbers the good guys. You provide The Truth, what crooks fear.