Jeb Bush Adviser After Cantor Loss: Laura Ingraham 'Paper Tiger'

Conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham help propel Dave Brat to one of the biggest upsets in political history and may have helped destroy amnesty legislation in this Congress despite the hundreds of millions spent to push it. 

Brat ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) last week when his message tying Cantor to crony capitalism and corporate welfare that stiffs working Americans only resonated after he started to hammer Cantor on his support for amnesty legislation. Brat, an economics professor, often said amnesty was the greatest issue that symbolizes the divide between Wall Street elitists and Main Street Americans. 

But Mike Murphy, a conservative-bashing consultant who often acts like the “priests” he so despises, has been proclaiming otherwise, even though he did not even pay attention to the race. Murphy, a top Jeb Bush adviser who wants to destroy any suggestion that Republicans may not like amnesty in order to help his client, referred to Ingraham as a “paper tiger” on Sunday.

Brat’s campaign credited Ingraham, who campaigned for Brat and ceaselessly held Cantor’s feet to the fire on amnesty legislation, for helping Brat pull off the shocker. A host of others have agreed. In fact, Donna Brazile observed that Ingraham knows how “to throw a punch” on ABC’s This Week. As Breitbart News wrote, Murphy’s “paper tiger” Ingraham only helped “KO Cantor — and perhaps amnesty legislation in this Congress — last week.”

As for Murphy’s contention that “it’s about the $” for Ingraham, Ingraham has always been against amnesty — she called out the Bush administration’s embrace of “comprehensive immigration reform” last decade. She, along with Michelle Malkin, has been consistently and relentlessly opposed to amnesty legislation. Perhaps Murphy is projecting though, for, as Breitbart News has reported, Murphy is the “type of ‘Boomtown’ consultant that conservatives have often railed against”:

According to a New York Times report, Murphy was considering working for Steve Poizner in the 2010 California gubernatorial race until billionaire Meg Whitman invested $1 million in a fledgling film production company Murphy started. According to the Times:

In the months before the deal was closed, Mr. Murphy had been flirting with working on the campaign of Ms. Whitman’s future rival in the Republican primary for governor, Steve Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner. But he had an about-face.

The timing of the investment and its unusual nature — Ms. Whitman lists no other holdings in the world of independent movie production — raise some questions about its ultimate purpose: Was it strictly a business decision, or part of an effort to ensure that a coveted political strategist did not work for the competition? Or perhaps a way to sweeten the pot so he would eventually sign on with the right team?

Murphy signed on with Whitman and reportedly made $1.3 million in 13 months for her failed campaign. Even though Whitman spent $178.5 million  — $144 million was her own money — she failed to defeat Jerry Brown in the general election.