Former Massachusetts governor, Mormon cultist and dog abuser Mitt Romney is a master of two essential campaign skills — pandering and fawning. Indeed, in recent comments around the peninsula, he’s combined both in characterizing former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush as the next best thing to a big ol’ sack of political capital.

By fawning all over the president’s little bro, Mitt is pandering to Florida Republicans who long for the good old Jeb days when state government was run like a well-lubricated political machine with a single goal — consolidating and wielding Republican political clout. Nowadays, Tallahassee seems less like a neo-conservative stronghold and more like a moderate beach resort with Charlie Crist as its affable, always-tanned activities director.

So Mitt’s pulling out all the fawning stops for maximum pandering productivity:

“I love him,” said Romney in South Carolina last March. “If his name weren’t Bush, he’d be running for president, I’m convinced.” He went on to call Bush “quite a guy.”

Ew!

For his part, Bush is playing coy, refusing to endorse a Republican candidate prior to Florida’s primary Jan. 29.

But when his attempts to get the big guy to put out some endorsement endearments were rebuffed, Romney did the next best thing — he surrounded himself with at least nine former Jeb staffers:

Sally Bradshaw, a Bush confidant and longtime player in Florida politics, now works as Romney’s senior policy adviser.

State Director Mandy Fletcher worked as executive director of Bush’s advocacy group, Foundation for Florida’s Future, Florida political director of the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign and a Northeast Florida field director for Bush’s 2002 reelection campaign.

Romney national finance co-chairman Mark Guzzetta is a close personal and business associate of Bush, having worked on both of his gubernatorial bids and served as finance co-chairman of Bush’s second campaign.

Bush, who was best man in Guzzetta’s wedding, appointed him to the Florida Transportation Commission in 1999.

Bush’s press secretary, general counsel, statehouse policy director and some of his field staff all also signed up with Romney.

Still, Bush keeps leading Romney on, and Republicans who like Jeb (he left office with a 65 percent approval rating), seem to be picking up on the budding romance and transferring some of the love to the Mittster:

Christine Bozarth, a Republican from Daytona Beach, became a devoted Romney supporter last year after she saw him speak with Bush.

“They are both such feet-on-the-ground, down-to-earth people,” said Bozarth. “Bush was going around and introducing him, kind of like a buddy.”

Double-ew!