Jeb Unleashes Chang on Unsuspecting Supporters

Posted on September 20, 2005

Jeb Bush puzzled supporters when he threatened to "unleash Chang" when things got tough. During a ceremony in which Republican Representative Marco Rubio, (R-West Miami) was named as the 2007-08 House speaker, Governor Jeb Bush started babbling about "unleashing Chang," his "mystical warrior" friend.

"Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society."
"I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down." Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift. "I'm going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior," he said, as the crowd roared.

Eastern mysticism? What will Jeb's fundamentalist Christian supporters think about that? And, more importantly, what the heck was he talking about? An editorial in the Gainesville Sun explains:

In a 1989 Washington Post article on the politics of tennis, former President George Bush was quoted as threatening to "unleash Chang" as a means of intimidating other players.
The saying was apparently quite popular with Gov. Bush's father, and referred to a legendary warrior named Chang who was called upon to settle political disputes in Chinese dynasties of yore.
The phrase has evolved, under Gov. Jeb Bush's use, to mean the need to fix conflicts or disagreements over an issue. Faced with a stalemate, the governor apparently "unleashes Chang" as a rhetorical device, signaling it's time to stop arguing and start agreeing.

Well, it makes more sense for the former Ambassador to China to unleash a little Chang on the tennis court. But in front of hundreds of conservative lawyers and lawmakers at the Florida statehouse? It's just....odd. In a related story, Jeb's 21 year-old son (John Ellis Bush) apparently unleased a little too much Chang and got himself arrested for public intoxication.

Update: Further searching of the Chang Mystery led us to Wonkette, whose sources tell her that Chang isn't Chang at all. It's Chiang, as in Chiang Kai-Sheck.

Devoted readers are still puzzling out the meaning of Paul Begala's Sugar Land move, but they've busted "unleash chang" wide open. It's not a porny-sounding family in-joke, it's a Cold War-era family in-joke! And it's not "chang," it's "Chiang," as in Chiang Kai-Shek -- the plea to "unleash Chiang" was a rallying cry for those who thought the U.S. should allow Chiang's Nationalist forces to invade mainland China and drive the Communists from power.
It was also George H.W. Bush's secret horseshoes-winning chant. Correspondents seem to assume H.W. was mocking Chinese hardliners with the slogan, though we note that Jeb seems to take it sort of seriously, proving that the last generation's irony is this generation's earnest mistake. Worked out that way with Iraq, too, maybe.

How does Poppy stand it?