George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography

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As the runoff vote approached, Cox focused especially on the eastern financing that Bush was


receiving. On May 25 in Abilene, Cox assailed Bush for haspending sprees ever seen in any political campaign." Cox sving mounted "one of the greatestaid that he could not hope to match this (^)
funding "because Jack Cox is not, nor will ever be, connected in any manner with the Eastern
kingmakers who seek to control political candidates. Conservatives of Texas will serve notice on
June 6 that just as surely as Rockefeller's millions can't buy presidential nomination, the millions at
George Bush's disposal can't buy him a senate nomination." Cox ccontributions had come from inside Texas. laimed that all of his
O'Donnells's Texas Republican organization was overwhelmingly mobilized in favor of Bush. Bush
had the endorsement of the state's leading newspapers. When the runoff finally came, Bush was the
winner with some 62% of tgreenbacks." he votes cast. Yarborough commented that Bush "smothered Jack Cox in
Gordon McLendon, true to form, had used his own pre-primary television broadcast to rehash the
Billie Sol Estes charges against Yarborough. Yarborough nevertheless defeated McLendon in the
Democratic senatorial primary with almost 57% of tadvantage in registered voters, and given LBJ's imposing lead over Goldwater at the top of thehe vote. Given the lopsided Texas Democratic
Democratic ticket, it might have appeared that Yarborough's victory was now a foregone
conclusion. That this was not so was due to the internal divisions within the Texas Democratic
ranks.
First were the Democrats who came out openly for Bush. The vehicle for this defection was called
Conservative Democrats for Bush, chaired by Ed Drake, the former leader of the state's Democrats
for Eisenhower in 1952. Drake was joined by former Governor Allan Shivers, who had also backed
Ike and Dick in 1952 and 1956. Then there was the "East Texas Democrats for George Bush
Committee," chaired by E.B. Germany, the former state Democratic leader and in 1964 tchairman of the board of Lone Star Steel. he
Then there were various forms of covert support for Bush. Millionaire Houston oilman Lloyd
Bentsen, who had been in Congress back in the late 1940's, had been in discussion as a possible
senate candidate. Bush's basic contention was that LBJ had interfered in Texas politics to tellBentsen to stay out of the senate race, thus avoiding a more formidable primary challenge to
Yarborough. On April 24 Bush stated that Bentsen was a "good conservative" who had been kept
out of the race by "Yarborough's bleeding heart act." This and other indications point to a covert
political entente between Bush and Bentsen which re-appeared during the 1988 presidential
campaign.
Then there were the forces associated with Governor Big John Connally. Yarborough later confided
that Connally had done everything in his power to wreck his campaign, subject only to certain
restraints imposed by LBJ. Even these limitations did not amount to real support for Yarborough on
the part of LBJ, but were rather attributable to LBJ's desire to avoid the embarrassment of seeing hisnative state represented by two Republican senators during his own tenure in the White House. But
Connally still sabotaged Yarborough as much as LBJ would let him get away with. [fn 24] Bush
and Connally have had a complex relation, with points of convergence and many points of
divergence. Back in 1956, a lobbyist working for Texas oilman Sid Richardson had threatened to
"run [Busderegulation in the Senate. [fn 25] Connah's] ass out of the offshore drilling business" unless Prescott Bush voted for gally later became the trustee for some of Richardson'ss (^)
interests. While visiting Dallas on March 19, Bush issued a statement saying that he agreed with
Connally in his criticisms of attorney Melvin Belli, who had condemned the District Court in Dallas
when his client, Jack Ruby, was given the death sentence for having slain Lee Harvey Oswald the
previous November.

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