He's tanned, rested and ready. But two years out of the Governor's Mansion, can Jeb Bush, Florida's my-way-or-the-highway ex-CEO, really see himself in the "world's greatest deliberative body," plodding through slow-going compromises with 99 other U.S. senators?

"It was a shocker to me,'' said former state Republican chairman Tom Slade. "He has always been incredibly clear about his negative feelings about being in the United States Senate. But make no mistake, he is the 800-pound gorilla in Florida."

For all of Bush's derision of Washington politics over the years, longtime friends say he is seriously looking at running because of the times and the mess his party is in. Bush, 55, sees a directionless Republican Party struggling for a consistent message and a set of core beliefs. No one has ever questioned Bush's core, conservative principles.

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