What went wrong: Chatting with Jeb Bush Super PAC chief Mike Murphy

As for Cruz, Murphy does not TrusTed and has no plans to fall in line with the man shaping up to be the Establishment’s hold-your-nose-and-kiss-your-sister Trump alternative: “I think he’s cynical, totally cynical. .  .  . I don’t think he could win a general election, so he’ll be wiped out. It’s a choice between Trump, who is terrible for the country, and Cruz, who is terrible for the party. He’s too smart for his act .  .  . and he’s probably pissed that a bigger con man showed up.”

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Murphy does speak well of John Kasich, his choice of the leftovers. “I like Kasich a lot. He’s the only grown-up running.” He wishes Kasich well, as he labors to stay above the Friars Club roast, to be substantive and constructively positive, to offer people hope. But Kasich, Murphy adds, has an impossibly tall order this year: “He’s trying to start an opera club at a tractor pull.”

To put some reverse-English on matters, I talk to an old friend and profile subject, Mr. Dirty Tricks himself, Roger Stone. Stone, in some ways, is Murphy’s antipode this cycle. A longtime Trump adviser, consultant, and henchman, Stone loudly and flamboyantly severed formal ties with Trump last August, but the two remain in regular contact.

When I suggest to Stone that he and Murphy are in some ways Establishment vs. Antiestablishment evil twins, he bristles: “That’s almost insulting. I’m far more effective than he is. Though he makes more money than I do. The fees Murphy takes out of this stuff? The guy should be wearing a mask.”

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