Consider this the silly story of today that will likely be the familiar trope of tomorrow. The New York Times’ Alan Rappeport dug into Jeb Bush’s voting records in Florida and dug up a nugget that made Drudge this morning, and not in a good way for Team Jeb. Bush, who plans on making a pitch for enthusiasm among Hispanic voters, might have gotten a little too enthusiastic himself about them when he registered to vote in 2009:

Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor and likely presidential candidate, was born in Texas and hails from one of America’s most prominent political dynasties. But on at least one occasion, it appears he got carried away with his appeal to Spanish-speaking voters and claimed he actually was Hispanic. In a 2009 voter-registration application, obtained from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, Mr. Bush marked Hispanic in the field labeled “race/ethnicity.” A Bush spokeswoman could offer no explanation for the characterization.

Well … okay. Rappeport helpfully notes that the registration cards are signed under penalty of perjury, but Jeb won’t need to lawyer up. He’s not Hispanic, although his wife Columba certainly is, but the ethnicity of a voter isn’t the kind of information to which perjury would pertain. That data does not benefit the voter in any way, but just provides information for demographic analysis. Rappeport puts this in the same category as Elizabeth Warren’s dubious claims of Native American ancestry, but Warren actually did seek specific benefit from that claim as part of her career at Penn and Harvard (and so did Harvard, for that matter).

In another sense, though, it may belong in the same category in terms of authenticity. Warren’s story damaged her because it made her look inauthentic, and this could have the same impact on Jeb, too — especially with two authentic Latinos in the Republican primary fight. Jeb and Marco Rubio are friends, so Rubio probably won’t overtly attack Jeb over this, but what about Ted Cruz? He’s not exactly afraid to take on Republican establishment figures, and Jeb’s the proxy for them all in the 2016 cycle. He’ll put it in humorous terms, but don’t expect Cruz to let it slide. And both will probably make the sotto voce argument that if Republicans want to appeal to Hispanic voters, they should nominate an authentic Latino.

In the meantime, we’ll get to see plenty of pictures like this (via Matt Lewis):

Jeb Bush registered to vote as "Hispanic" in 2009, for some as-yet-undisclosed reason:http://t.co/FHvhv3a5ad pic.twitter.com/up7kabRhmR

— SpeedReads (@SpeedReads) April 6, 2015

Update: George P. Bush to the rescue?

My mistake! Don’t think I’ve fooled anyone! RT @JebBushJr LOL – come on dad, think you checked the wrong box #HonoraryLatino

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) April 6, 2015

Mea culpa, indeed, but it’s at least a charming one. However …

@SusanPage Wonder what reaction would be if this was Chelsea and Hillary? A million stories on Hillary “using” Chelsea is my guess.

— Teresa (@TeresaKopec) April 6, 2015

Yeah, probably.

Note: This update originally mistook Jeb Jr for George P. Bush. I’ve fixed it and removed an argument that no longer applies. My apologies for the mistake.