Campaign '94: George W. Bush /As operative for his father, loyaltywas the foremost watchword

By CRAGG HINES, Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
Staff

WASHINGTON -- Soon after the 1988 election, a handful of intensely loyal Bush supporters began to divvy up the spoils of victory.

The sole task of the partisans on the so-called "silent committee" was to decide who had been politically dedicated enough to the new president to merit top federal jobs. Leading the small group was George W. Bush , the winner's eldest son.

At one session, the well-connected chairman advanced the prospect of an acquaintance, Dallas catalog king Roger Horchow, to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, a juicy federal plum.

The choice struck some in the group as inappropriate. Why Horchow, they asked?

"Because he gave money to my father" was Bush 's matter-of-fact reply, a participant in the meeting recalled.

But a quick cross-check of the records indicated that Horchow also contributed to the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis .

"It didn't take any more," the participant recalled. "George W. said, "That's it.' "

Friend or not, Horchow ceased to be a candidate.

The younger Bush 's leadership of the committee and his response to Horchow's bet-covering demonstrate the role he took in his father's political life -- a behind-the-scenes operative who displayed and demanded unquestioned loyalty to the older Bush .

"Loyalty to his father was all," said Chase Untermeyer, a longtime aide to President Bush and now a vice president of the Houston-based computer firm Compaq.

Even the few times the actions of the younger Bush made their way into the headlines, his role remained unchanged.

It was George W. Bush who finally told White House chief of staff John Sununu that, after months of controversy, it was time to go. When Sununu sought to rally conservative support to remain on the job, word of the first son's mission was leaked to reporters -- to increase pressure on Sununu to move on.

That Sununu failed to understand the message was coming from the president -- and no appeal was possible -- indicates how badly he failed a Bush -style political IQ test.

The incident, in late 1991, also illustrates how George W. could operate as a second pair of political eyes and ears for his father.

Rich Bond, a Bush campaign operative for more than a decade, recalls getting a letter from President Bush as old-line supporters were getting restless about the lack of planning for the 1992 race. The note said George W. soon would be in touch to discuss politics.

"I unloaded" when George W. called, Bond said. "I told him what an idiot I thought John Sununu was."

Bond wasn't the only one with that view.

George W. delivered the message from supporters to his father and, once the president had made up his mind, passed the verdict to Sununu.

To some folks with extensive ties to the Bush family, George W. was also sometimes a messenger for his mother. Barbara Bush carefully cultivated her role as national grandmother and rarely wanted her fingerprints on any political hatchet work. But both she and her oldest son have long, exacting political memories, friends agree. And, one added, George W. and his mother "were a lot harder nosed about things than (the president) was."

"She can smell a phony a mile away," the younger Bush once said of his mother, whom he admiringly referred to as "the silver fox."

The run-in with Sununu was not the first time the younger Bush had tangled with a chief of staff to his father.

A number of Bush insiders believe George W. helped to block Craig Fuller, Bush 's chief of staff as vice president, from moving to that job in the White House. The younger Bush believed Fuller, a California Reaganite, was inattentive to the Bush family and longtime associates.

"He wouldn't return a damn phone call," is how Richard Ben Cramer, in "What It Takes," his mammoth look at presidential politics, sums up George W.'s antipathy to Fuller.

Cramer also recounts an incident while Bush was vice president in which staff members occupied seats at an Astros game his father was attending that George W. believed should have been for him, his wife and his daughters.

It took Bobby Holt, a Bush family friend from Midland, to explain the misstep to Fuller.

Holt told Fuller he had ticked George W. off, and that he should not mess with the family -- only Holt used more earthy phrasing.

George W. was reportedly instrumental in recruiting David Bates, the Houstonian who eventually became a senior White House official, to join his father's vice presidential staff so that, as one insider put it, "the old Bush network was not cut out by Fuller."

In 1980, the younger Bush was active in -- but not central to -- his father's bid for the Republican presidential nomination and then his race as Ronald Reagan's running mate.

By the 1988 campaign, George W. had assumed a major role in his father's presidential campaign, operating directly out of the Washington headquarters.

"He was brought in as the disciplinarian among a staff that was seen as talented but self-promotional," said an experienced operative with daily exposure to the Bush campaign.

"You had a lot of egos there," the source said, mentioning ad chief Roger Ailes, campaign manager Lee Atwater and chairman James A. Baker III. George W. "was the only person there who didn't have another agenda other than what was best for his father."

"I don't want to overstate his role," the source said. "It wasn't like he was the brains of the operation, but he was a figure to be reckoned with."

Charles Black, a key Bush campaign consultant, said George W. could render an instant judgment on how his father would react to a proposed tactic.

"He knew his father like a book," Black said. "He could say this is George Bush and this is not."

Peter Teeley, Bush 's vice presidential press secretary, credited George W. with "doing a lot of things the prima donnas (in the campaign) didn't want to do," including public appearances that were guaranteed to generate zero news coverage.

After the election, on the "silent committee," recalled a participant, "he had exactly the right standard -- who was active (in the campaign) and who was play-acting. He has a great ability to see through guff."

According to several accounts, by the time of the 1992 campaign, George W. was more assertive -- and not always in a constructive way.

"He was a much more humble fellow in 1988," said a longtime Bush activist. In 1992, "he had an answer to almost everything."

Perhaps it was because he sensed the campaign -- and his father -- were faring so poorly.

In his last hurrah for his father, George W. acted as "a court of appeals for things that were going wrong," said Marlin Fitzwater, Bush 's press secretary.

"Things didn't always change," Fitzwater said, "nor did (George W.) assume he had the power to change them."

But the younger Bush was unquestionably influential throughout the failing effort, insiders agree.

"The president believed in him and knew George would tell him the hard truth," Fitzwater said.

A Bush sampler, 1978-94

Selected soundbites from George W. Bush :

"There's no such thing as being too closely aligned to the oil business in West Texas."

-- Running for Congress, 1978.

"Some people say I'm trying to run on my father's name. Anyone who knows me knows I can stand on my own feet."

-- Running for Congress, 1978.

"Being the vice president's son isn't important. I don't even know who Walter Mondale's children are."

-- On being the vice president's son, 1980.

"I was the loyalty thermometer."

-- On his role in his father's 1988 presidential campaign.

"Being the president's son puts you in the limelight. While in the limelight, you might as well sell tickets."

-- On his job with the Texas Rangers, 1989.

"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."

-- On why he joined the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, 1990.

"I made my arguments and went down in flames. History will prove me right."

-- On his vote, as the Rangers managing partner, against realignment of baseball's major leagues into three divisions each. The club was the only one of the 28 major league franchises to oppose the move, 1993.

"When all those people in Austin say, "He ain't never done anything,' well, this is it."

-- On The Ballpark at Arlington, the publicly financed stadium built for the Texas Rangers baseball club, 1993.