This past week, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) told the GOP it would be “incredibly stupid” to ignore Latinos as a political force. “This is about the conservative cause. If you look over the horizon over the next 10 or 20 years…without an active involvement of Hispanics, we will not be the governing philosophy,” he said.

During an interview with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera which aired this weekend, Bush — who opposed the original Arizona law SB-1070 and is in favor of comprehensive immigration reform — said he is alienating conservatives in his efforts to reach out to Latinos:

You could hear crickets around me in my views on immigration on this particular issue. It’s a solitary view, I guess — or close to it.

Watch it:

It’s not quite accurate that Jeb is hearing crickets; he’s also hearing loud criticism from the intolerant wing of his party. Right-wing hate radio host Mark Levin blasted Bush for “race-baiting,” calling his remarks “divisive” and “destructive of conservatism.” Levin said, “I’m starting to think Jeb Bush isn’t that bright, to be honest with you.” Calling Bush someone who sounds like “a host on MSNBC,” Levin concluded:

I am sick and tired of politicians and ethnic front groups who do everything they can to divide us, to categorize us, and to undermine the entire notion of our founding. I cannot vote for Jeb Bush whenever he runs, because apparently, he has a comprehension problem when it comes to our founding, when it comes to the Declaration and the Constitution, and when it comes to basic — basic — understanding of the greatness of this nation.

Watch the video at The Right Scoop.

Levin is a frequent critic of conservatives, previously attacking Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), Bill O’Reilly, and even Glenn Beck. Nevertheless, he remains an inspiration for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Sarah Palin, and many other influential right-wing leaders.

(HT: The Right Scoop)

News outlets across the country are discussing a federal judge’s ruling that a key part of health care reform, the individual mandate, is unconstitutional. The New York Times and Washington Post blared A1 headlines about the decision today, and the story led each of the network news broadcasts last night, following stories about extreme winter weather in the Midwest. The idea that health care reform might be unconstitutional was once, not too long ago, a very marginal and unknown position — it remained the province of far-right legal scholars. As Josh Marshall writes, “a year ago, no one took seriously the idea that a federal health care mandate was unconstitutional. … But the decision that just came down from the federal judgment in Virginia — that the federal health care mandate is unconstitutional — is an example that decades of Republicans packing the federal judiciary with activist judges has finally paid off.” (TPM traces the evolution of the legal argument here).

While conservatives were mounting a highly-coordinated legal challenge to the constitutionality of health care reform, the movement’s leaders were also mounting an aggressive public relations campaign to provide political cover for their radical effort to overturn a popular bill. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli began making appearances on right-wing media outlets and at widely covered Tea Party conventions to push the constitutionality issue.

Yesterday, on the day that a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the individual mandate unconstitutional, Cuccinelli went on the Mark Levin Show to thank the extreme hate radio host for his “critical” “help” and “partnership” in pushing the public case for unconstitutionality and helping his listeners understand the legal arguments:

LEVIN: You’ve done a great thing here Ken, you’ve got great lawyers in your office, and —

CUCCINELLI: You know, I appreciate that Mark – I also appreciate the help. I don’t know if you’ve told your listeners but you’ve been in on this all the way along; you did a great job on Comstock and the necessary and proper clause and some of your listeners probably don’t care about all those details, but honestly it all helps and it’s all critical. In some respects the case is pretty straightforward, but of course when you get into the nitty-gritty not all of it is simple, so having you all alongside with us was definitely helpful. I appreciate it.

LEVIN: Well it was a great honor. You’re the leader on this. [...]

CUCCINELLI: Hey Mark, thanks for your partnership, it’s good to have teammates. When we got in this, and when you guys got in this, everybody was saying ‘oh, you guys don’t have a chance.’ Well we do have a chance, the constitution has a chance, and it’s worth fighting for. And we’re going to keep fighting for it. Thanks for the help.

Listen here:

Of course, the right-wing media that Cuccinelli found so useful in his push against health care reform has plenty of other ideas about the law, too. Levin has said he believes the health care laws are akin to “economic slavery,” and never hesitated to push pernicious lies about “death panels.” A sampling of Levin’s opinions on health care reform:

– Levin said President Obama is a “bully” who has “taken our health care away.” [7/2/10]

– Discussing health care reform, Levin said the Obama administration has a “Soviet-style industrial plan in place” and wants to “kill the economy.” [7/2/10]

– Levin told Sarah Palin that “[y]ou’re absolutely right about” “death panels.” [11/18/10]

– Levin issued an ominous warning to seniors: “Senior citizens, you are in their target area. … You will be expended.” [10/16/09]

– In rant on health care, Levin equated Senate Finance bill with “economic slavery.” [10/14/09]

A crucial part of Cuccinelli’s war on health care reform is clearly the public relations push; the New York Times reported yesterday that “[w]ithin hours of the judge’s decision on Monday, [Cuccinelli's] political Web site was advertising on the conservative drudgereport.com and other Web sites.” Unfortunately, Cuccinelli has relied on poisonous, dishonest media figures like Mark Levin to help make his argument — a fact rarely mentioned in the mainstream media coverage.

Appearing on CSPAN’s Newsmakers this Sunday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) reiterated his pledge to stay in session after Christmas to give the Senate more time to consider end of year priorities like extending tax breaks for the middle class and passing the stand-alone Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal measure recently introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Levin also called on President Obama to use his bully pulpit to keep the Senate in town past the holidays, but lamented that he hasn’t seen “that kind of a willingness to fight that hard” from Obama:

LEVIN: One of the questions will be whether we stay long enough to get some of these things done and I hope we stay as long as we need. There are many days extra if we stay after Christmas, it adds a few days. It would add a few days, for instance, if we stayed in the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before Christmas. You can pick-up a few days, and if it will make a difference, and I think it can… I would hope we would take those few days and also to get Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell passed. [...]

The way I think the President needs to fight is to say that he is going to use all of the power he has of a bully pulpit and urge the Senate to stay in, right up to New Years. … [T]hat’s the problem that I don’t see that kind of a willingness to fight that hard, where he will take that kind of a position and that’s what’s necessary. The Senate and the House, these are tests of wills.

Watch it:

The White House expressed support for the stand-alone bill on Friday, but stopped short of calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to extend the session. “The president remains committed to seeing this repeal done before Congress leaves town this year,” said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who also promised Obama would remain engaged on the issue.

Yesterday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) warned fellow Republicans to stop “overreacting” to the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. He said that while some degree of “deference” must be shown to some 9/11 families who don’t want the center nearby, “it would be wrong to so overreact to that, that we paint Islam with a brush of radical Muslim extremists that just want to kill Americans because we are Americans.”

Even though Christie included obligatory digs at Democrats and President Obama for somehow “playing political football” with the issue, his comments were still apparently too much for right-wing hate radio host Mark Levin. He unleashed on Christie last night during his radio show, and called the governor “absolutely dead wrong” and questioned Christie’s conservative credentials:

“Just because you clobber public sector unions, and you fight to cut your state’s budget, does not necessarily mean you are presidential material. He will see….It’s a matter of right and wrong. If the 9/11 families hadn’t stood up, if some of the most, you know, outspoken individuals in conservative media hadn’t spoken up, many, many people not only wouldn’t know about it, they wouldn’t care about it. And this is something we should care about. This is fundamental. So, sorry governor. You’re absolutely dead wrong. It’s not a political football game.“

Listen:

Levin is right that Christie has been extremely conservative on budget issues: his budget proposal this year refused to extend a tax on earners over $400,000 — which would have generated $900 million for the state — but it did cut $820 million to public schools. He also vetoed a tax on residents with incomes over $1 million, which was designed to help fund property tax relief for senior citizens and the disabled, among other programs. According to the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, due to Christie’s veto, “a retired couple living on a fixed income of $40,000 would see an increase of $1,320 in taxes under the governor’s plan while a family making $1.2 million would receive a tax cut of $11,598.”

Christie has been mentioned as a 2012 Republican nominee for president, and even Rush Limbaugh recently asked: “Is it wrong to love another man? Because I love Chris Christie.” Still, Christie does not appear to pass Levin’s notoriously strict litmus test for conservatives.