PASSING THE MANTLE:

Jeb's endorsement of a fellow retired governor is a question of when, not if, several sources told the Daily News.

"Jeb wishes Mitt were a little more conservative, but he's for him and is happy to endorse him," a Republican rainmaker who speaks with both told the Daily News. "It's only a matter of timing. Jeb knows Romney is the only guy who can beat Obama."

That shouldn't surprise savvy election-watchers. It's been an open secret for months within the Republican establishment that all three members of the Bush dynasty are Romney men -- even though most of the clan has kept to the sidelines. [...]

The first President Bush's preference for Romney is reinforced by a lingering resentment towards former House Speaker Gingrich for reneging on a 1990 commitment to back Bush on an unpopular tax increase plan.

The Bushes, father and both sons, have never forgiven Gingrich for "lying to the President of the United States," said a former senior White House aide intimately involved in the deliberations.

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