George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

Jack Kemp, a 1988 presidential candidate with a loyal conservative-populist base, for
Housing and Urban Development appeared inspired more by Bush's desire to prevent a
challenge from emerging on his right in the GOP primaries of 1992 than by the need to
cater to an identifiable financier faction. The tapping of Reagan's Secretary of Education,
William Bennett, a leading right wing ideologue and possible presidential prospect, to be
Drug Czar, is a further example of the same thinking. The selection of Elizabeth Hanford
Dole to be Secretary of Labor was dictated by similar intra-GOP considerations, namely
the need to placate the angry Republican Minority Leader, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, a
darling of Dwayne Andreas of Archer-Daniels-Midland and the rest of the grain cartel.
Later reshuffling of the Bush cabinet has conformed to the needs of getting an
intrinsically weak candidate re-elected, especially by accentuating the southern strategy:
when Lauro Cavazo left the Department of Education, he was replaced by former
Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander. When Bennett had to be replaced as drug czar,
the nod went to another Republican former southern governor, Bob Martinez of Florida.
All of this was to build the southern base for 1992. When Thornburgh quit as Attorney
General to run for the senate in Pennsylvania in the vain hope of positioning himself for
1996, Bush tapped Thornburgh's former number two at Justice, William P. Barr, who had
been a CIA officer when Bush was CIA director in 1976, for this key police-state post.
But all in all, this cabinet was very much an immediate reflection of the personal network
and interests of George Bush, and not representative of the principal financier factions
who control the United States. We see here once more the very strong sense of national
government as personal property for private exploitation which was evident in Bush's oil
price ploy of 1986, and which will soon characterize his choreography of the Gulf crisis
of 1990-91. This approach to cabinet appointments could give rise to a surprising
weakness on the part of the Bush regime, should the principal financier factions become
disaffected in the wake of the banking and currency panic towards which Bush's policies
are steering the country.
Bush's shameless exploitation of political appointments and plum jobs for blatant
personal advantage became a national scandal when he began to assign certain
ambassadorial posts. It became clear that these jobs of representing the United States
abroad had been virtually sold at auction, with the most flagrant disregard for
qualifications and ability, in return for cash contributions to the Bush campaign and the
coffers of the Republican Party. These appointments were carried out with Bush's
approval by a transition team of GOP pollster Bob Teeter, Bush's campaign aide Craig
Fuller, who had lost out on his bid to be White House chief of staff, campaign press
secretary Sheila Tate, and long-time Bush staffer Chase Untermeyer. Calvin Howard
Wilkins Jr., who had given over $178,000 to the GOP over a number of years, including
$92,000 to the Kansas Republican National State Election Committee on September 6,
1988, became the new ambassador to the Netherlands. Penne Percy Korth was Bush's
selection for ambassador to Mauritius; Ms. Korth was a crack GOP fundraiser. Della M.
Newman, tapped for New Zealand, had been Bush's campaign chiarman in Washington
state. Joy Silverman, Bush's choice for Barbados, had contributed $180,000. Joseph B.
Gilderhorn, destined for Switzerland, had coughed up $200,000. Fred Bush, allegedly not