BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TO SAVE THE PARTY FROM THE ZEUS-WORSHIPPERS AND THE KNOW-NOTHINGS:

Why Jeb Bush Might Run for the Senate (Tim Padgett, 12/04/08, TIME)

One important reason Bush has changed his mind, say Floridians who know the committed conservative, is that he fears last month's election calamity could dilute the ideological purity of the Republican Party. In an interview this week with Newsmax.com, Bush, 55, the outgoing President's younger brother, warned the GOP against becoming "Democrat lite. We can't just 'get along.'" Despite his disdain for Washington, the Senate would at least "give Jeb a bully pulpit," says a friend. That could help him keep his party from falling too far into the centrist, bipartisan hands of new Republican leaders like his successor, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who last month hosted a GOP governors conference in Bush's home city of Miami, where that more pragmatic politics was trumpeted. Even if Bush doesn't run, "considering it" at least sends the signal that after two years ensconced in private family life, he's back in the game and will influence whomever the party does pick to succeed Martinez.

Bush doesn't just want to preserve the Republicans' ideology, however; he also wants to put a fresher face on it. For all his right-wing reputation, Bush displayed a savvy dose of compassionate conservatism as governor, especially on issues like offshore drilling (he opposed his brother's attempts to revive it in Florida waters) and immigration. (The GOP's draconian anti-immigrant stand, in fact, is one of the reasons Martinez, the Senate's first Cuban American, felt he was in an uphill battle in the long run.) In a recent Politico.com interview, Bush, who is married to a Mexican and counts Florida's Latinos as a large part of his base, insisted Republicans "can't be anti-Hispanic, anti–young person — anti–many things — and be surprised when we don't win elections."

The timing is convenient for Bush as well. If he's now willing to consider a Senate run, then it's fair to assume he's also now open to a presidential bid, either in 2012 or 2016, when the Senate term would end.