Jeb Bush's burgeoning 2016 campaign team just adopted a new guard dog.
On Friday, Politico broke the news that Bush's camp was hiring Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising, as his top communications aide. America Rising is a conservative opposition-research firm that has been lasering in on Hillary Clinton over the past two years.
Miller has quickly become a formidable peddler of oppo research, both through his group and on his Twitter feed. Last June, America Rising published a 112-page e-book essentially outlining the conservative playbook against Hillary Clinton in 2016. America Rising's website is rife with clicky headlines and slick in-house graphics detailing Clinton's peccadilloes, most recently her Clinton Foundation flap. They even sell anti-Clinton merch, like this T-shirt that reads, "I wish I was as broke as the Clintons".
Compare that with other potential Republican candidates' attempted attacks on Clinton. Sen. Rand Paul's political operation created a fake Pinterest account for Clinton. Pinterest quickly removed the account, saying it violated the company's terms of use. In 2016, Republicans are going to have to do better to troll Clinton, the presumed Democratic frontrunner, and Miller has shown he knows just how to do that.