As the 1988
presidential campaign of then Vice President George Bush began, he knew
that the “microscopic probing” of his family was about to intensify.
So that May, he wrote a letter urging caution in the Bush ranks.
It would be best, he wrote, to refrain from any kind of activity that
could be construed – or misconstrued – as an attempt to peddle
influence.
“We are about to sail
into uncharted waters, in terms of family scrutiny,” Mr. Bush wrote in
the letter, addressed to his son George W. Bush, but seemingly directed
at the Bush family more broadly. A copy of the letter was recently
released to The New York Times by the 41st U.S. president’s library.
In 1988, as George
Bush ran for president, he addressed a letter to George W. Bush, urging
family members to steer clear of perceived conflicts of interest.
A frequent target of
that scrutiny was Jeb Bush, then a young businessman and political
operative in Miami. And Mr. Bush, who is now contemplating a
presidential campaign of his own, didn’t take kindly to it. On several
occasions, he wrote retorts to critical newspaper stories about him and his business activities.
George Bush’s letter,
which closed with “Devotedly, Dad,” implied that the close examination
of the family was unfair, but it was part of big-time national politics.
He admitted, though, that he might come across in his letter as
“preachy.”
“As we move close to
November, you’ll find you’ve got a lot of new friends,” Mr. Bush wrote,
predicting that these friends would soon ask for things.
“My plea is this:
please do not contact any federal agency or department on anything. A
call from a ‘Bush’ will get returned, but there is a great likelihood
that it will be leaked; maybe deliberately misrepresented.”
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