George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

with the facts." In the midst of his imperial regency over the United States, an unamused
Kissinger responded that "we are facing a new version of McCarthyism." A few days
later Kissinger said of the Pike Committee: "I think they have used classified information
in a reckless way, and the version of covert operations they have leaked to the press has
the cumulative effect of being totally untrue and damaging to the nation." [fn 22]
Thus, as Bush's confirmation vote approached, the Ford White House on the one hand
and the Pike and Church committees on the other were close to "open political warfare,"
as the Washington Post put it at the time. One explanation of the leaking of the Pike
report was offered by Otis Pike himself on February 11: "A copy was sent to the CIA. It
would be to their advantage to leak it for publication." By now Ford was raving about
mobilizing the FBI to find out how the report had been leaked.
On January 19, George Bush was present in the Executive Gallery of the House of
Representatives, seated close to the unfortunate Betty Ford, for the President's State of
the Union Address. This was a photo opportunity so that Ford's CIA candidate could get
on television for a cameo appearance that might boost his standing on the eve of
confirmation. The invitation was handled by Jim Connor of the White House staff, who
duly received a hand-written note of thanks from the aspiring DCI.
Senate floor debate was underway on January 26, and Senator McIntyre lashed out at the
Bush nomination as "an insensitive affront to the American people." The New Hampshire
Democrat argued: "It is clearly evident that this collapse of confidence in the CIA was
brought on not only by the exposure of CIA misdeeds, but by the painful realization that
some of those misdeeds were encouraged by political leaders who sought not an
intelligence advantage over a foreign adversary, but a political advantage over their
domestic critics and the opposition party."
McIntyre went on: "And who can look at the history of political subordination of the CIA
and expect the people to give an agency director so clearly identified with politics their
full faith and confidence? To me it is a transparent absurdity that given the sensitivity of
the issue, President Ford could not find another nominee of equal ability--and less suspect
credentials--than the former national chairman of the president's political party."
In further debate on the day of the vote, January 27, Senator Biden joined other
Democrats in assailing Bush as "the wrong appointment for the wrong job at the wrong
time." Church also continued his attack, branding Bush "an individual whose past record
of political activism and partisan ties to the president contradict the very purpose of
impartiality and objectivity for which the agency was created." Church appealed to the
Senate to reject Bush, a man "too deeply embroiled in partisan politics and too
intertwined with the political destiny of the president himself" to be able to lead the CIA.
Goldwater, Tower, Percy, Howard Baker, and Clifford Case all spoke up for Bush.
Bush's floor leader was Strom Thurmond, who supported Bush by attacking the Church
and Pike Committees. "That is where the public concern lies, on disclosures which are
tearing down the CIA," orated Thurmond, "not upon the selection of this highly
competent man to repair the damage of this over-exposure."