Destiny And Power - Destiny and Power Part 43
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Destiny and Power Part 43

U.S. Government Memorandum, Special Agent Graham W. Kitchel to Special Agent in Charge, "Unknown Subject; Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," November 22, 1963, FBI, #62-2115-6.

"THE RUMORS ARE FLYING" BPB diary, 1963; BB, 5960.

BUSH CANCELED HIS POLITICAL COMMITMENTS BPB diary, 1963.

THE BUSHES TOOK JEB AND DORO Ibid.

"POPPY SEEMS TO FEEL" Ibid. Johnson now loomed ever larger in Texas politics. "The recent tragedy has changed things somewhat since Lyndon Johnson is a Texan and this home state problem will be difficult to overcome here," Bush wrote John W. Smith of Seaboard Air Line Railroad in Richmond, Virginia, on December 9, 1963. Bush might, however, be lucky in his foe. "On the other hand my prospective opponent is Senator Ralph Yarborough," Bush wrote. "He is a liberal with a bad voting record and apparently a personality to match since, even though voting down the line with the New Frontier, he does not get appointments to committees to which his seniority would otherwise entitle him." Still, Bush appreciated the difficulties ahead. "I must overcome the label problem since voting Republican still is pretty unattractive in many sections of the State; but on the other hand Yarborough maintains a rabid position on Civil Rights and is all out in his support of the accommodations section of the Civil Rights Bill." (GHWB to John W. Smith, December 9, 1963, Correspondence Between George Bush and FitzGerald Bemiss, 196169, FITZ.)

Neil Mallon had called Bush on Sunday, November 24, 1963, to report that he had heard the conservative Democratic faction was urging Congressman Joe Kilgore to challenge Yarborough in the Democratic primary. (BPB diary, 1963.) Then word came that the Kilgore maneuver was off: "Now we hear that no one will oppose R. Yarborough 'For Party Unity,'" wrote Barbara. "What stories fly!" (Ibid.)

According to The Texas Observer, Johnson pledged to do "everything he can" to help Yarborough. A president from Texas could not abide an all-Republican senatorial delegation from his home state. (The Texas Observer, June 26, 1964.) One by one Yarborough's possible rivals chose not to make the race. Kilgore was out; Allan Shivers, a former governor, was out; and in the first week of January 1964, Lloyd Bentsen, a former congressman from the conservative wing of the party, announced that he, too, was abandoning his plans to challenge Yarborough. (DMN, January 4, 1964.) Bush and his fellow Republicans argued that the Johnson-engineered, conservative-free Democratic primary underscored the truth that conservatives could find a home only with the Republicans. The failure to field a candidate opposing Yarborough, said Peter O'Donnell, represented a "shellacking to conservatives in the Texas Democratic Party." (The Texas Observer, February 21, 1964.) Bush said that Democrats should "shake their heads in shame" at Johnson's interference. (DMN, February 7, 1964.)

"I DON'T HOLD WITH MURDER" The Nation, February 3, 1964.

IN THE MAY 1964 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DMN, May 5, 1964.

SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY WITHDREW The Texas Observer, May 15, 1964.

THE PRESIDENT OF TEXAS TECH IN LUBBOCK CANCELED Ibid.

ABILENE AND SAN ANTONIO DEBATED Ibid., June 12, 1964.

THE TEXAS MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION PRODUCED Ibid., March 6, 1964.

THE REAL CHOICE IN TEXAS POLITICS DMN, February 7, 1964.

VOTED "DOWN THE LINE" Ibid., March 22, 1964.

WITH ROUGHLY 44 PERCENT The Texas Observer, May 15, 1964.

THE FIRST REPUBLICAN RUNOFF IN TEXAS DMN, June 3, 1964.

HE RAISED FOUR TIMES Ibid., June 2, 1964.

NOTING THAT BUSH HAD ALREADY The Texas Observer, May 29, 1964.

BUSH STRUCK BACK DMN, June 4, 1964.

BUSH DEFEATED COX LSY, 107.

IN WASHINGTON FOUR DAYS LATER DMN, June 11, 1964; The Texas Observer, June 26, 1964.

BUSH SAID HE WAS "SHOCKED" Ibid.

VOTED FOR "A COURSE OF ACTION" DMN, June 11, 1964.

STRUGGLED TO RECONCILE Naftali, GHWB, 1316.

"MY HEART IS HEAVY" ATB, 88.

"STATES' RIGHTS" DMN, June 11, 1964.

"THERE IS AT LEAST ONE" Ibid., July 26, 1964.

"HIS CAMPAIGN...GETS A LOT OF ENERGY" "Goldwater's Policies, Kennedy's Style," The Texas Observer, October 30, 1964.

"SIR, I'M GEORGE BUSH" Ibid.

JIM LEONARD ANNOUNCED The Texas Observer, June 26, 1964.

"THE MORE WIDELY" DMN, September 21, 1964.

"A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE TALKING BUSH" Ibid.

THE LIBERALS AT THE TEXAS OBSERVER The Texas Observer, June 12, 1964.

WOULD BE "ANOTHER" Ibid., October 16, 1964.

"R.Y. IS GETTING MEAN" ATB, 89.

CALLING BUSH "THE CONNECTICUT CANDIDATE" DMN, October 3, 1964.

THE CARPETBAGGER CHARGE Ibid., October 4, 1964.

DATING HIS BAPTISM Ibid.

"I WAS BORN OUTSIDE" Ibid., October 25, 1964.

A POLL OF LIKELY VOTERS PUT BUSH DMN, October 25, 1964.

ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, BUSH BROADCAST Ibid., October 27, 1964.

THE TELECAST RAN ON MORE THAN A DOZEN Ibid.

ON THE SAME EVENING H. W. Brands, Reagan: The Life (New York, 2015), 2.

"LET'S SHOW THE WORLD" Time, October 16, 1964.

JOHNSON DEFEATED GOLDWATER http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1964.

THE UPI ELECTION NIGHT LEAD Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1964.

BUSH POLLED 44 PERCENT Michael J. Dubin, United States Congressional Elections, 17881997 (Jefferson, N.C., 1998), 648. The precise figure for Bush is listed as 43.56 percent.

THE "FIERCEST" GENERAL ELECTION DMN, November 4, 1964.

"ACTUALLY WE RECEIVED" ATB, 89.

"I DON'T MEAN TO BE UNGRATEFUL" Ibid.

"THE FIGURES INDICATE" Ibid.

"BAFFLED BY THE RETURNS" Ibid.

HE HAD OUTSPENT HIS OPPONENT Ibid., November 17, 1964.

"I PLAN TO CONTINUE" Ibid., November 4, 1964.

"WE GOT BEAT" GHWB to FitzGerald Bemiss, November 3, 1964, Correspondence Between George Bush and FitzGerald Bemiss, 196169, FITZ.

"THE BIRCHERS ARE BAD NEWS" GHWB to FitzGerald Bemiss, November 11, 1964, Correspondence Between George Bush and FitzGerald Bemiss, 196169, FITZ.

"DID I GO TOO FAR RIGHT?" Author interview with GHWB.

"BUT I WAS NOT AS MODERATE A GUY" Ibid.

"POP WAS REALLY DEAD" BPB diary, March 18, 1965.

Part IV: The Wars of Washington, 1966 to 1977 ALTHOUGH FUNDAMENTALLY CONSERVATIVE DMN, August 30, 1970.

THE RIGHT TO HOPE IS BASIC ATB, 110.

THIRTEEN: Without a Moment to Stop I'D LIKE TO BE PRESIDENT BPB diary and letters, January 7, 1966.

FOR BUSH, POLITICS IS DMN, August 30, 1970.

LEAVING HIS WIFE IN CHARGE Author interviews with GHWB, BPB, GWB, and Jeb Bush.

GEORGE W.'S FIRST MEMORY Author interview with GWB.

HE WOULD TAKE HIS CHILDREN Author interview with Jeb Bush. Bush, Neil Bush recalled, was "like a whirling dervish." (Author interview with Neil Bush.) JEB REMEMBERED A HUNDRED-DEGREE DOUBLEHEADER Author interview with Jeb Bush.

"THEY RAN OUT" Ibid.

"I HAVE ONLY ONE MEMORY" Ibid.

ZAPATA'S RIG MAVERICK ATB, 94.

"THIS WAS THE" Ibid.

HE FLEW OVER THE GULF Author interview with GHWB.

"GEORGE BUSH, HOUSTON BUSINESSMAN" NYT, March 28, 1965.

THERE WAS SPECULATION DMN, January 12, 1966.

A LAWSUIT BUSH HAD HELPED FILE Ibid., January 13, June 23, and July 21, 1965. For the redistricting suit, see, for instance: El Paso Herald-Post, May 31, 1965; Lubbock Avalanche Journal, June 2, 1965; Brownsville Herald, June 23, 1965; Bush v. Martin, 224 F. Supp. 499 (1963); Martin v. Bush, 376 U.S. 222 (1964). (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16751940927364620785&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr and https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1906979868133602061&q=Bush+v.+martin&hl=en&as_sdt=8006&as_vis=1).

POLLING SHOWED THAT...FRANK BRISCOE BPB diary and letters, January 7, 1966.

RUMORS THAT ROSS BAKER Ibid.

"I DON'T WANT TO MOVE" Ibid.

"I'D LIKE TO BE PRESIDENT" Ibid.

"IT WOULD HAVE BEEN UNFAIR" LF, 89.

HE SOLD HIS ZAPATA OFF-SHORE LSY, 117; ATB, 9495. He sold his shares of Zapata Off-Shore for $20 a share. "Three months later, the stock began a climb that carried it to $140 a share, where it split, two for one." (Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1969.) The Zapata sale was a key moment in his life. "He is really trying to get the Zapata thing done and then get on this," Barbara wrote of the House race in January 1966. In a letter to George W. on Tuesday, January 25, 1966, she wrote: "Our life has gotten to a really emotional cross road for Dad. If the deal goes through that he is working on, we will no longer be part of Zapata. I feel sure that at your age this does not seem as emotional an issue that it is at our age. Dad has spent a lot of time this week thinking back over his years with Zapata, all the people who have made our lives so easy etc. This is quite a move for Dad and he has thought long and hard about giving up his job." (BPB diary and letters, January 25, 1966.) On the financial side of things, Barbara recalled: "Had he waited four years, why, it would've been a gold mine. But money wasn't his thing. We've done well, don't misunderstand me. I did say to him, 'The only thing, George, is that I hope we'll be able to, when our children say we really want to go to camp, we'll be able to afford it.' In 1966 we put $50,000 in all five children's accounts. Some of them were so cheap that they made money on it eventually and some of them maxed out almost. That meant that they could go to private school, or camp, or travel. We were very lucky-most congressmen can't do that." (Author interview with BPB.) Jeb Bush used his account to buy a house after he graduated from college. (Author interview with Jeb Bush.) BETWEEN $737,000 This figure was derived from G. H. Walker, Jr., to William Tyrrell, January 31, 1966, Zapata-Hall and Mize Agreements Returned, Business Alphabetical Files; telegram, GHWB to Walker, February 25, 1966, and GHWB to G. H. Walker, Jr., February 25, 1966, both in Zapata-Hall and Mize Agreements Returned, Business Alphabetical Files; GHWB to First City National Bank of Houston, September 29, 1966, Zapata-Hall and Mize: Bush Note (1), Business Alphabetical Files; GHWB to Bush Children Trust, September 1, 1966, Zapata-Hall and Mize: Bush Note (2), Business Alphabetical Files; all in ZAP, GBPL.

$1.1 MILLION Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1969.

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN $5.5 MILLION AND $8 MILLION Derived from calculations on DollarTimes.com, www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.html.

BUSH ANNOUNCED HIS CANDIDACY BPB diary and letters, January 1966; DMN, January 17, 1966.

BARBARA WAS DRIVING BPB diary and letters, January 1966.

IN JULY 1966, BUSH WAS TRAILING Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President, 1968 (New York, 1969), 4345. I am indebted to McGinniss's book for the Treleaven observations and the 1966 story.

BUSH'S ADVERTISING STRATEGY Ibid., 45.

ORDINARY VOTERS Ibid., 44.

"THERE'LL BE FEW OPPORTUNITIES" Ibid., 4445.

"POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE CELEBRITIES" Ibid., 45.

"WE CAN TURN THIS" Ibid.

OVER AND OVER Ibid.

"TOO LONG, REPUBLICANS" The Galveston Daily News, November 6, 1966.

A "HUMAN INVESTMENT" PROGRAM DMN, May 7, 1966.