By now unless you live under a rock yuou have seen or heard of the panic that the brother of GW Bush, Jeb, has created with his latest statements about the GOP……let me paraphrase in case you are under that damn rock…..”Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground,” Bush said, adding that he views the hyper-partisan moment as “temporary.”

Immediately the GOP trotted out every pundit and spokesperson they could find to explain what Jeb meant when he made his statement….there is a simpler way to solve the mystery….ASK JEB!

But since that is not what will happen The WEEK magazine has given four theories on why Jeb made his statement……

1. Jeb wants to save the GOP from itself
Bush is “on a quest to push his party away from the political extreme,” says Aaron Blake at The Washington Post. He senses that the GOP is sacrificing political ground to the Democrats on important issues like immigration and the budget. The “GOP brand has been bad for a while” — about 40 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the GOP, while only 25 percent approve of Republicans in Congress. Bush’s remarks might be a thorn in Romney’s side, but the GOP candidate might benefit from listening to Jeb’s critique.

2. Bush is setting up a 2016 presidential run
“Bush is clearly engaged in an effort to position himself as the next leader of the Republican Party,” says Jonathan Chait at New York. If Romney loses in the fall, the GOP “will recognize that its harsh partisan rhetoric turned off voters, and will urgently want to woo Latinos,” a demographic that is “growing in size and seems to be tilting every more strongly toward the Democrats.” Bush is “setting himself as the cure” in case Romney blows it in November.

3. Jeb is defending his family’s political legacy
Bush’s remarks reflect “the growing drift of the party’s base from the Bush family,” which conservatives have criticized for selling out the party’s principles, says Jim Rutenberg at The New York Times. George W.’s big domestic achievements — from the expansion of Medicare to No Child Left Behind — were bipartisan efforts that have been assailed by Romney and other Republicans as models of big-government conservatism. Jeb even praised his father’s 1990 deficit-reduction deal, in which George H.W. famously broke his “no new taxes” pledge and earned himself the dreaded epithet of a RINO (Republican in Name Only).

4. Bush is taking on the ideology police
Bush was especially critical of Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who has gotten an “astounding 95 percent of elected Republicans” to sign a pledge to oppose “any and all” tax increases, says Ana Marie Cox at Britain’s The Guardian. The power of Norquist, conservative super PACs, and other members of the “outside ideology police” has made it impossible for elected Republicans to compromise on key issues, shattering “the illusion of a relationship between the goals of the party and the goals of most Americans.” And without some kind of pushback, the ideology police will end up running the party.

There you have the prevailing theories.  Personally, I think Jeb wants to run in 2016 and he is laying the ground work for that run….I do believe that he said just what he meant….he is no dummy and I beleive that the GOP is to survive Mitt and the PACs then they need to heed his words.

Enough of what I think……any other opinions out there?