If you want to see what's next for the Republican Party, Nicolle Wallace told us last night, tune into former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The former communications director for the second Bush White House says her boss' brother has been talking about the need to speak to the entire country.
In the interview yesterday, Jeb Bush sounded like a Republican throwback:
"I'm concerned that we are focused so exclusively on these huge deficits and debt that one of the main means by which we get out of the mess is to grow. And if we don't grow our economy, then there's no amount of cutting that will solve this problem."
Make no mistake: Jeb Bush is a conservative who wants to dramatically lower taxes and cut regulations. But he's also willing to say that cutting spending is not by itself the answer, and that makes him stand out in today's Republican Party. Whether his voice will cut through the post-2008 purification process that Nicolle Wallace says the GOP is still undergoing is another question.