Jeb Bush officially throws his hat into the presidential ring for 2016.

I am excited to announce I will actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States: https://t.co/luY4lCF2cA.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 16, 2014

Not that this is a surprise, but now there is not longer any remaining doubt.

I actually think that this will do for the Republican field, essentially what having Hillary contemplating a run has done to the Democratic field.

I'm not saying that Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, and Chris Christie will not necessarily run, I am just saying that they will have little chance of beating Jeb. And he will for all intents and purposes draw the majority of media attention.

And let me just add at this point that the Democrats have no choice but to rally behind Hillary at this point. Because like it or not she has the very best chance of beating Bush in the general.

Jon Stewart on Rand Paul's contention that the death of Eric Garner was partly due to taxes, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Speaking of Comedy Central pundits, this month is the Colbert Report's last month on the air.

It's finally episode will air on December 18th.

So Colbert is really pulling out all of the stops and will broadcast from Washington D.C. on Monday. His guest will be a certain President of the United States, which I think indicates the kinds of people who are fans of the show.

These two shows have often served as an oasis of sanity during incredibly divisive times, and I for one will be incredibly sad to see one of them coming to an end.

Benghazi might not be over as an issue in 2016 after all. At least not if Rand Paul has anything to say about it.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, criticizes potential rival Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the attacks, and vows to seek the truth about Benghazi. 

"This new Benghazi ‘intelligence’ report is little more than a C.Y.A. attempt designed to protect incompetent politicians and government agents at the expense of justice for the victims of September 11, 2012," Paul writes in an op-ed for Breitbart, a conservative website, using an acronym for "cover your ass." 

The report in question was issued by the House Intelligence Committee before Thanksgiving, and counters several claims made by some Republicans critical of the Obama administration's handling of the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi. 

The report found that "there was no intelligence failure prior to the attacks," "no evidence" of a stand down order to U.S. personnel responding to the assault and no CIA operation to secretly ship arms from Benghazi to Syria. 

Paul expresses skepticism at the report’s findings.

Now this is important because lately Rand Paul has been working pretty hard to portray himself as far less wingnutty than we know him to be. (Remember Paul has a fifteen year relationship with professional lunatic Alex Jones, and was once a frequent guest on his radio show.)

So for Paul to ignore the fact that this is just the latest of several investigations into Benghazi, all of which turned up no evidence of malfeasance on the part of the White House, nor any attempt to launch a coverup.

Now personally I expected certain individual to speak out against these findings, and so they have including Senator Lindsey Graham ("Full of crap!"), former Congressman Allen West, and various other Right Wing types. However I thought that Rand Paul was attempting to resist the conspiratorial whispers from the voices in his head and continue straightening his hairpiece and trying to play the grownup.

However I believe I may have given him too muhc credit. Take a look at how he justifies his reticence in accepting the findings of the report: 

"None of these accusations contain even a modicum of truth?" he asked. 

He points to a Fox News report that U.S. security personnel said the top CIA officer in Benghazi prevented them from responding faster, and to multiple articles on arms smuggling from Libya to Syria. 

"The Obama Administration has tried to paint members of Congress who ask these questions as somehow being extreme or crazy — and perhaps the House Intelligence Committee will now follow suit," Paul writes. "But remember, this is the same administration that called the investigation into the IRS scandal a product of a 'conspiracy theory.' "

So to support his faith that there really is a Benghazi scandal, despite the fact that his has been debunked, Paul turns to the IRS "scandal," which has also been debunked.

Awesome plan.

Conservative groups band together to block nomination of Jeb Bush.

Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:  

Conservative leaders who had a hand in key Republican victories including Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the Contract with America and the birth of the Tea Party, are ganging up to oppose a Jeb Bush presidential bid, declaring him easier to beat than Bob Dole or John McCain. 

“I don’t know of any conservatives who are supporting him,” said Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com. 

“Jeb is a very good moderate Democrat,” added top-rated talk radio host Mark Levin. “He's very boring. He doesn't elicit excitement and energy outside a very small circle of wealthy corporatists and GOP Beltway operatives. Time to move on.”

Wow! Easier to beat than Bob Dole! That is some nasty backstabbing right there my friends.

Okay now do you want to know what measuring tool they are using to judge Jeb's suitability to be President?

The Reagan-ometer that's what: 

“The objection so many Reaganites have to another Bush is because he is another Bush,” said Reagan biographer Craig Shirley. “He, too, has an alarming belief in centralized authority. From the standpoint of history, the Bush family got their start in 1980 opposing Reagan and Reaganism, as they continue to do today.”

Of course as most of us realize even Ronald Reagan could not measure up to the Conservatives deified version of his memory.

And who do these conservative leaders want instead of the easily defeated Jeb Bush? Well I thought you'd never ask:

“We just don’t trust him,” said Viguerie, who favors Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Oh yeah, thinking that Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, or Rand Paul are more electable than Jeb Bush.

Just things  batshit crazy conservatives do.

If it can damage the reputation of Cliff Huxtable, Republicans hope similar past allegations can derail Hillary Clinton's 2016 run by doing the same to Bill Clinton's reputation.

Recently I am sure that many of you have probably heard a conservative or two conflating the recent allegations of rape and sexual molestation against Bill Cosby, with Bill Clinton's famous extra martial adventures.

Rush Limbaugh has had that a mainstay of his recent radio broadcasts, and Fox News has recently jumped on the bandwagon as well.

In a recent Politico article it was revealed that this was not a simple case of coincidence and that there is actually a concerted effort to link the two men in the minds of the American people: 

Digital operatives recognize that Cosby’s fall is sure to be an unusual case, given the severity of what more than a dozen women have said he did, including several who had not spoken out before. 

But strategists also see Cosby’s fall as a case study in how social media can spread old news to new audiences — with speed and efficiency dramatically different from what any previous generations of political candidates have encountered. 

Here's more: 

Some believe this issue could become a problem for Hillary Clinton, the party’s early 2016 frontrunner. Bill Clinton’s history of infidelity and allegations of harassment were thoroughly aired in the 1990s. The question is whether the information will find a new audience on social media or one that views the events through a new frame. 

There is some precedent for a shift in attitude. Monica Lewinsky reemerged online this year with an interview in Vogue. While she was widely mocked and harassed online in the late 1990s — she even calls herself the first true victim of cyber bullying — she found a far more sympathetic environment in 2014, with some comedians even apologizing for how she was treated as a White House intern and feminist writers defending her. 

Still, Hillary Clinton’s expected 2016 campaign will have little hope that Republicans and reporters won’t spend time trying to rehash the former president’s personal and political scandals. 

Paul, the Kentucky Republican and likely 2016 presidential candidate, hit Democrats and Bill Clinton earlier this year for using a position of power to take advantage of young women. “Anybody who wants to take money from Bill Clinton or have a fundraiser has a lot of explaining to do,” Paul said during a February interview on CSPAN’s “Newsmakers” program. That followed comments earlier in the year on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he said, “there is no excuse” for predatory behavior and “We shouldn’t want to associate with people who take advantage of a young girl in his office,” referencing the Monica Lewinsky affair. 

“If anything, Bill Clinton’s past transgressions are a case study in how politicians have displayed the wrong type of attitude with the people they’ve worked with,” Republican strategist Madden said. 

It’s unclear if Republicans could successfully create a viral issue out of Clinton’s past. There have been no new women to come forward in recent years or other scandal to propel it forward. While Cosby faced lawsuits and other allegations of rape and sexual assault, several women have come forward recently. The story has become national news and NBC has canceled a new Cosby comedy show.

It must be pointed out that there are vast differences in what Bill Cosby did with drugging young women and taking advantage of them against their will, and Bill Clinton's sexual escapades which featured willing participants. I am not saying that Clinton was without fault, just that the allegations are in completely different ball parks.

I have long felt that while Bill Clinton is one of Hillary's greatest assets, that he is also potentially her Achilles heel.

If Bill has been behaving well I seriously doubt this old news will have any effect on her candidacy.

However, if Bill has strayed even once since all of that was revealed that could be a real problem for Hillary.

And it is clear that the Republican party is going to work very hard to make that happen.