Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years (92 page)

14
. David Frum, “Justice Miers?” David Frum’s Diary, September 29, 2005. Former White Housespeechwriter David Frum’s online diary is available through the
National Review
online at
http://frum.nationalreview.com
.

15
. Author interview with Brian Berry, October 11, 2005.

16
. Author interview with Gypsy Hogan, October 6, 2005. Allbaugh also borrowed money from anelderly widow and faithful GOP donor, but never paid her back.

17
. In September 1990, Allbaugh left the job with Stephens for reasons unknown. His résumésuggests that he was then unemployed until February 1991, when he reappeared back on the other side of the customer-service counter, this time as deputy secretary of transportation under Democratic governor David Walters. (A grand jury later issued eight felony indictments against Walters, who pled guilty to one misdemeanor charge of violating state campaign-contribution laws.)

18
. Author interview with Wayne Slater, October 11, 2005.

19
. Debra Dickerson, “The Real Bush Drug Scandal,” Salon.com, September 14, 1999.

20
.
National Law Journal
, January 21, 1988.

21
. Mimi Swartz, “Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!”
Texas Monthly
, November 2005.

22
. Phillip Rawls, “Karl Rove Built Reputation in Alabama Court Races,” Associated Press, October28, 2005.

23
. R. G. Ratcliffe, “Secrecy Cloaks $1.7 Billion in UT Investments,”
Houston Chronicle
, March 21, 1999.

24
. “The company claims that the demonstrations, which go under the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations, but this is unlikely. According to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles about Clear Channel for Salon.com, the company is notorious— and widely hated—for its iron-fisted centralized control.” See Paul Krugman, “Channels of Influence,”
New York Times
, March 25, 2003.

25
. Raymond Hernandez and Andrea Elliott, “Antiwar Group Says Its Ad Is Rejected,”
New York
Times
, July 12, 2004.

26
. Author interview with Doug Wead, December 14, 2006.

27
. In the summer of 2008, with former Karl Rove aides holding top positions in John McCain’spresidential campaign, McCain began appropriating the leftover Teddy Roosevelt comparison, in a Sunday front-page article. Adam Nagourney and Michael Cooper, “McCain’s Conservative Model? Roosevelt (Theodore, That Is),”
New York Times
, July 13, 2008.

28
. Author interview with Lewis L. Gould, July 12, 2006.

29
. Alicia Montgomery, “School’s Out for Bush ‘Miracle,’ ” Salon.com, October 24, 2000.

30
. “The ‘Texas Miracle,’ ”
60 Minutes II
, CBS, August 25, 2004.

31
. Robert H. Gow,
You Can’t Direct the Wind; You Can Only Reset the Sails: My First 62 Years
(Houston: Xixim Publishing, 2002), p. 108.

32
. Jonathan Tilove, “Dynamic Duo Assures Event’s Diversity,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, January 21, 2001.

33
. Carl Redman, “Bush-Foster Fund-Raiser Big on Praise, Cash,”
The Advocate
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana), August 19, 1999.

34
. Mike Allen, “With Eye on Transition, Bush Confers with Powell,”
Washington Post
, December 1, 2000.

35
. Noam Scheiber, “Public Schooling: Rod Paige Learns the Hard Way,”
New Republic
, July 2, 2001.

36
. Carol D. Leonnig, “HUD Chief Inattentive to Crisis, Critics Say,”
Washington Post
, April 13, 2008.

37
. Ibid.

38
. David Broder, “Jesse Helms, White Racist,”
Washington Post
, August 28, 2001.

39
. Holli Chmela, “Ex-Bush Aide Admits Shoplifting and Is Fined,”
New York Times
, August 5, 2006.

19: THE CONVERSION

1
. George W. Bush,
A Charge to Keep
(New York: William Morrow, 1999), pp. 136–37. Throughout the writings of Poppy, W., and Barbara Bush, a pattern emerges regarding the selective inclusion of names. Wherever a person is likely to provide reporters with a favorable story, that person’s name is included—no matter how gratuitous their mention or how obscure they may be. By contrast, the names of many important figures in their lives appear to have been excised.

2
. Ibid., pp. 19, 86.

3
. Elizabeth Mitchell,
W.: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty
(New York: Berkley Publishing, 2003), p. 220.

4
. As president, Poppy appointed Teeley ambassador to Canada—a particularly nice perk for a formerpress secretary.

5
. Jodi Kantor and David D. Kirkpatrick, “Pulpit Was the Springboard for Huckabee’s Rise,”
New
York Times
, December 6, 2007.

6
. Garry Wills,
Under God: Religion and American Politics
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 120.

7
. Eric Pooley with S. C. Gwynne, “How George Got His Groove,”
Time
, June 21, 1999.

8
. Doug Wead,
All the President’s Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America’s First Families
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004).

9
. Jacob Weisberg,
The Bush Tragedy
(New York: Random House, 2008), p. 78.

10
. Arthur Blessitt, “Praying with George W. Bush,”
www.blessitt.com/?q=praying_with_george_w_bush
.

11
. Graham also played to his friends’ prejudices, telling Nixon, who periodically complained about Jews, that he believed they had a “stranglehold” on the media. See “Graham Regrets Jewish Slur,” BBC News, March 2, 2002.

12
. Terry M. Neal, “Nominees Make Final Forays to Tossup States,”
Washington Post
, November 6, 2000.

13
. Weisberg,
The Bush Tragedy
, p. 77.

14
. Lois Romano and George Lardner Jr., “1986: A Life-Changing Year; Epiphany Fueled Candidate’s Climb,”
Washington Post
, July 25, 1999.

15
. David Maraniss, “The Bush Bunch,”
Washington Post
, January 22, 1989.

16
. Author interview with Doug Wead, May 27, 2008.

17
. Scott McClellan,
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception
(New York: Public Affairs, 2008), pp. 48–49.

18
. “Author: I Should Give Tapes to Bush,” CNN.com, February 21, 2005.

20: THE SKELETON IN W.’S CLOSET

1
. Moore knew something about this issue. Unlike Bush, he had actively opposed the Vietnam War, but he had been unable to gain a pilot slot in the National Guard of his home state of Michigan. “I was told that there was a five-year waiting list for anyone interested in flying, whether as a pilot or as a navigator or whatever, and I was told that there was a minimum three-year list to get in as a soldier,” Moore recalled.

2
. Moore, with Wayne Slater, later wrote a book about Karl Rove, called
Bush’s Brain: How Karl
Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003).

3
. Eric Boehlert, “Unwitting Drudge Indicts Bush,” Salon.com, September 14, 2004.

4
. James Moore,
Bush’s War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House and the People
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004), p. 222.

5
. Burkett and his team of strategic planners calculated the “ghost” element of the Texas National Guard to be on the order of 7.8 percent. That turned out to be conservative. Several years later,
USA Today
would run a story largely based on Burkett’s research. In checking the figures, the newspaper came up with a higher figure: 11 percent ghost soldiers. Dave Moniz, “ ‘Ghost Soldiers’ Inflate Guard Numbers,” December 18, 2001.

6
. Author interview with Bill Burkett, September 4, 2004.

7
. Author interview with Bill Burkett, July 7, 2004.

8
. Author interview with Bill Burkett, July 31, 2008.

9
. In a 1998 letter to Texas state senator Gonzalo Barrientos, Burkett complained that he had not received adequate medical care when he became seriously ill after returning from the mission to Panama. Michael Rezendes, “Doubts Raised on Bush Accuser,”
Boston Globe
, February 13, 2004.

10
. There were additional factors in their firing, also related to allegations of Guard corruption.

11
. These were led by an Iowa farmer and railroad brakeman named Marty Heldt, who made the first information requests; Bob Fertik, a Queens, New York, Internet political consultant who obtained a second batch; and Paul Lukasiak, a Philadelphia caterer who scrutinized arcane regulations.

12
. Author interview with Albert Lloyd, July 23, 2004.

13
. George W. Bush,
A Charge to Keep
(New York: William Morrow, 1999), p. 54.

14
. There was no Officer Effectiveness Rating form for his final year; there was no Leave and Earnings Statement. And when Bush was suspended from flight status, there should have been a Board of Inquiry Report. Finally, a complete set of pay records with accumulated totals was never produced. Moore,
Bush’s War for Reelection
, pp. 174–75.

15
. Undated anonymous letter to U.S. Attorney Dan Mills, obtained in discovery process for a lawsuit by Larry Littwin against the GTech Corporation.

16
. In 2005, James Moore wrote on the Huffington Post: “The same month that Lottery Commission Chair Harriet Miers was instructing staff to prepare to re-bid the G-Tech contract, Barnes and the company had informed the Texas lottery commission that he had agreed to a 23 million dollar settlement to buy out his contract. G-Tech had decided Barnes had become a ‘lightning rod,’ in part because he was included in a federal grand jury investigation in New Jersey, which accused Barnes of kicking back a share of his monthly retainer to G-Tech’s president. Barnes was not charged in connection with the G-Tech investigation.” James Moore, “Bush, Miers, the Guard, and the Texas Lottery: A Reprise,” Huffington Post, October 9, 2005.

17
. Harriet Miers may not have been informed that a “Barnes problem” existed, but others on the staff seem to have known. As early as March 1996, Allbaugh had been making inquiries about the lottery contract, though perhaps that was only because it was identified with Democrats. Miers, appointed to the chair by Bush, had sent Allbaugh notebooks of lottery meetings and details on the operator’s contract, according to a note from her to Allbaugh dated March 7, 1996.