POLITICS IN BRIEF

House Democrats outlaw GOP method

Majority Democrats rewrote House rules Tuesday to wipe out the small sliver of influence that minority Republicans finessed to win small victories on gun rights, immigration and an investigation of gasoline prices.

Democrats passed the bill over Republican objections, 242-181.

Republicans in the last Congress, seeking to kill certain bills, would send them back to a committee to add provisions that often were unrelated to the wider bill, but were popular enough to gain some Democratic rank-and-file support. Democrats had to withdraw such bills to prevent that from happening.

The bills usually were passed later after Democratic leaders rounded up support. Still, the GOP maneuvering was enough of an annoyance to get Democrats to rewrite the rules. “We were victims of our own success,” said Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

Jeb Bush says Senate run would be ‘detour’

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of President George W. Bush, has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, ending weeks of speculation.

Jeb Bush was considered the strongest contender for the seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) in 2010.

“There was a lot of support, and support from interesting places,” Bush said in an interview, “but this would have been a big detour in my life.”

Bush pledged to be involved in rebuilding the Republican Party by advocating conservative ideas and policies. But in a written statement, he also called on his fellow Republicans to “raise the level of debate to reflect the American people’s desire for change and bipartisanship, embodied by November’s historic election.”

“President-elect Obama ran a tremendous campaign, and I am proud to call him my president,” Bush said.

Richardson donor being probed gave to Obama

A prominent businessman whose political donations ended any role for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in the Obama administration also was a generous contributor in support of President-elect Barack Obama.

David Rubin gave $26,200 to the Democratic Party on Sept. 19 and $2,300 to Barack Obama’s campaign on Sept. 30, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. Last February, Rubin gave another $1,000 to Obama’s campaign.

Rubin and his company, CDR Financial Products, donated $100,000 in 2003-04 to the political committees of Richardson. On Sunday, Richardson withdrew from consideration as commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation of the donations. In a statement, CDR said the investigation concerns whether Rubin’s contributions might have been made in order to obtain favored status for the company in seeking state contracts, and denied wrongdoing.

Obama’s transition office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.