George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

matters. According to an unnamed former CIA deputy director for intelligence who
allegedly talked to Rolling Stone magazine in March, 1980, "the Bush campaign is, I
think, embarrassed by all the crazy spooks running around trying to help them." Another
retired top spook told the Washington Post that "there is a very high level of support for
George Bush among current and former CIA employees."
Some worried that all this intelligence community support might have damaging byproducts
for Bush. "I can see the headlines [now]," said one former clandestine officer
during the primaries: "BUSH SPRINKLES CAMPAIGN WITH FORMER SPOOKS."
One leading bastion of the Bushmen was predictably David Atlee Philip's AFIO, the
Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Jack Coakley was a former director and
Bush's campaign coordinator for Virginia. He certified that at the AFIO annual meeting
in the fall of 1979, he counted 190 "Bush for President" buttons among 240 delegates to
the convention. [fn 10]
During the course of the 1984 Debategate investigation, a number of Bush campaign
activists were depositioned about possible abuses in the course of this campaign. Most
revealing was the sworn statement of Angelo Codevilla, a former naval intelligence
officer who was a fixture for a number of years on the staff of the Senate Intelligence
Committee. Under questioning by John Fitzgerald, who was acting as counsel for the
House subcommittee chaired by Rep. Don Albosta, Codevilla responded:
I am aware that active duty agents of the Central Intelligence Agency worked for the George Bush
primary campaign. However, I cannot now remember some of these persons and I am not at
liberty to identify others by names or positions because to do so would compromise their cover.
[fn 11]
But before signing this as an affidavit, Codevilla crossed out "am aware" to "have heard"
in the first sentence. In the second sentence, he cancelled "identify others" and put in
"discuss these rumors." Active intelligence community officers who might have worked
for the Bush campaign while still drawing their federal payroll checks were likely to have
been in violation the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in
partisan political activity.
Baker was the obvious choice to be Bush's campaign manager. He had served Bush in
this function in the failed senate campaign of 1970. During the Ford years, Baker had
advanced to become Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Baker had been the manager of
Ford's failed 1976 campaign. Bringing Baker into the Bush campaign meant that he could
bring with him many of the Ford political operatives and much of the Ford political
apparatus and volunteers in a number of states. In the 1978, Baker had attempted to get
himself elected attorney general of Texas, but had been defeated. David Keene was
political advisor. As always, no Bush campaign would be complete without Robert
Mosbacher heading up the national finance operation. Mosbacher's experience, as we
have seen, reached back to the Bill Lietdke conveyances to Maurice Stans of the CREEP
in 1972. Teaming up with Mosbacher were Fred Bush in Houston and Jack Sloat in
Washington.