How the Bushes’ resolve, connections built a dynasty

THE BUSHES: PORTRAIT OF A DYNASTY

By Peter and Rochelle Schweizer

Doubleday, $27.95, 592 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY LYN NOFZIGER

Every fourth year in these United States, two things having to do with the presidency occur. First, we elect or reelect a president. Second, we are flooded with books about would-be presidents, most of which are puff pieces written to make those who seek the office look better than they really are.

Some of these books, however, are published primarily to take advantage of the fact that, in election years, Americans pay more attention to politics and the men and women who dominate the political scene.

This year is no exception. And one family that is going to have a lot written about it, both good and bad, both pro- and anti-, is the family that includes the current president George Walker Bush. The rise of the Bush family and their development into a political dynasty has been chronicled pretty thoroughly in a new book by Peter and Rochelle Schweizer, appropriately titled “The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty.”

Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, is also the author of “Reagan’s War,” which credits Ronald Reagan with winning the Cold War. Given the author’s background one might expect “The Bushes” to be one of those books that presidential candidates often pay someone to write, and someone else to publish, for the sole purpose of making them look good.

Not so in this case. In fact, “The Bushes” is only incidentally a political book. True, it gives the most space to the Bushes who have held or now hold high political office. But it also talks about the history of the clan, who its members are, and how the family reached its present prominence.

The average American when thinking of the Bush clan, if he does at all, probably doesn’t get beyond the current president or, perhaps, his father, the past president once removed. While most voters may be vaguely aware that President Bush is the son of a former president and has daughters and siblings (including brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida), what they may not know, or give much thought to, is that there is a whole slew of Bushes and Bush relatives scattered throughout the country.

In fact, though the Bushes seem not to like the term, they are undoubtedly the nation’s number-one political dynasty.

The Democrat Kennedys come close, but it is the Republican Bushes (and the Bushes think of themselves as the un-Kennedys) who have provided the nation with two presidents, a two-term vice president, a major state governor, a U.S. senator and a two-term congressman. Only the Adams family, in the nation’s early days, matched the Bushes’ father-and-son presidencies.

The best the Kennedys have managed is one president, three senators, two or three congressmen, one lieutenant governor, a couple of state legislators and one in-law recently elected governor of California as — ouch — a Republican.

In high-level appointive jobs the Kennedys also have to take a back seat to the Bushes, with their single attorney general and an in-law who headed up the Peace Corps. On the Bush side, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president (George W. is the 43rd) has to be among the all-time leaders of those holding high appointive positions. He has been head of the CIA, ambassador to China, ambassador to the United Nations, and chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In preparing to write their book the Schweizers spent hours and days interviewing family members and friends of the family, many of whom are quoted throughout the volume. Under the circumstances one could hardly expect their book to be anti-Bush, and it is not.

At the same time, the Schweizers appear to have made a determined effort to be objective. And while I’m sure all the warts in the huge Bush-Walker clan have not been exposed, the authors tell us enough to make it clear that there are no angels in the family, including the current president.

However, in wrapping up their book, the Schweizers leave the clear impression that they view the Bushes as the nation’s dominant political family, not only now but also in the years ahead, with Jeb Bush an eventual Republican presidential nominee, and George P. Bush, Jeb’s son, looming on the horizon.

As for those who would oppose a presidential run by Jeb, the Schweizers say, “In a world where political fund-raising drives media coverage, which in turn drives national attention, even popular figures in the GOP cannot help but feel that they are a small merchant shop up against Wal-Mart.”

That is an interesting, if flawed, analogy.

It is true that the Bushes have a unique ability to raise money and rally wealthy and prominent supporters to their cause. In fact, the Schweizers do a thorough job of pointing this out. But they fail to take into account another fact — that media coverage can be and often is less than favorable, and that the national electorate can and often does decide that it’s had enough of a politician (whether a new candidate or an incumbent) no matter how much money he can raise or who his friends are. George H.W. Bush learned this sad lesson in 1992 and Vermont’s former Governor Howard Dean learned it all over again this year.

Nevertheless, the rise of the Bush dynasty makes for interesting reading. The Schweizers write that the Bushes’ climb to national prominence began with Samuel P. Bush, who had migrated to Columbus, Ohio, from New Jersey. This Bush, the current president’s great-grandfather, was a maverick of sorts. That is, he did not attend Yale University, the alma mater of his father and grandfather and later of his son, Prescott Bush, who became a U.S. senator from Connecticut; of his grandson, George H.W. Bush; and of his grandson, George W. Bush.

Several things stand out in “The Bushes” and, lest you miss the obvious, the Schweizers tell you point blank what they are. For one thing, they tell us, the Bush men have a knack for marrying strong women who hold down the fort, women such as Barbara Pierce, who married George H. W.; Laura Welch, who married George W.; and, before them, Prescott Bush’s wife Dorothy Walker.

For another thing, the Bush boys have always kind of made it on their own, often leaving their hometowns and doing their own thing elsewhere. Prescott Bush came home after World War I, left Columbus and went first to St. Louis, then to Wall Street and finally to the U.S. Senate. George H.W. came home after World War II, left Connecticut for West Texas and eventually wound up as a Washington insider, vice president, and finally president.

George W. stayed in West Texas where he struggled to make it in the oil business, then became, successively, president of the Texas Rangers baseball team, governor of Texas and U.S. president. Meanwhile, Jeb moved to Florida, went into business and on his second attempt was elected state governor.

A third thing stands out in the Bush saga. Although the Bush men struck out to various parts of the country in order to make it on their own, they always had high-powered help. There were friends from Yale (hardly a cow college) and from Yale’s secret Skull and Bones Society. There were friends from the New York financial community, where Prescott Bush and kin from the Walker side of the family were important.

This is in no way a criticism of the Bushes. Everyone should be so fortunate. And besides, there is no doubt that for the most part the Bushes are smart and hardworking and, in some cases, driven eventually to enter public service.

But to say as the Schweizers do that the members of the newest generation of Bushes are not country-club Republicans is to stretch the truth just a bit. A family, even if it is not super-rich, that mingles with and reaps benefits from people who have wealth and power and who are country-club Republicans has to be known by the company it keeps.

And while it may be true that Jeb didn’t go to Yale because he didn’t want to be viewed as part of the elite, and George W. stayed in West Texas for the same reason, neither of them can deny that their family contacts with wealthy and important men have been keys to their political successes as well as those of their father and even their grandfather.

Lyn Nofziger, a Washington writer, was a political advisor to President Ronald Reagan.