George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography

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his Madison Avenue speech writers answer those single sentences." "My opponent is an exponent
of extremism, peddling smear and fear wherever he goes." "His conduct looks more like John BirchSociety conduct than United States Senate conduct," Yarborough added. Bush also distorted the
sound of Yarborough's voice almost beyond recognition.
Yarborough protested to the FCC in Washington, alleging that Bush had violated section 315 of the
Federal Communications Act as it then stood, because Yarborough'used without his permission. Yarborough also accused Bush of violation of section 325 of ts remarks were pre-censored andhe same
act, since it appeared that parts of the "empty chair" broadcast were material that had been
previously broadcast elsewhere, and which could not be re-used without permission. The FCC
responded by saying that the tapes used had been made in halls where Yarborough was speaking.
All during the campaign, Yarborough had been talking about the dangers of electronic
eavesdropping. He had pointed out that "anybody can be an eavesdropper, a wiretapper, a bugger,
who has a few dollars for the cheaper devices on the market. Tiny recorders and microphones are
now made to resemble lapel buttons or tie clasps...Recorders can also be found the size of a book or


a cigarette pack. There is a briefcase available with a microphoneavilable recorders may be carried in briefcases, while the wrist-watch microphone built into the lock, and many is no longer a (^)
product used by Dick Tracy-- it can actually be bought for $37.50." Yarborough charged during the
primary campaign period that his Washington office had been wiretapped, and years later indicated
that the CIA had been bugging all of Capitol Hill during those years. [fn 29]
Bush was also smarting under Yarborough's repeated references to his New England birth and
background. Bush claimed that he was no carpetbagger, but a Texan by choice, and compared
himself in that regard to Sam Rayburn, Sam Houston, Austin, Colonel Bill Travis, Davy Crockett,
Jim Bowie, and other heroes of the Alamo. Bush was not hobbled by any false modesty. At least,
Bush asserted lamely, he was not as big a carpetbagger as Bobby Kvote in New York state, where he was making a successful bid for election to the Senate. Itennedy, who could not even
"depends on whose bag is being carpeted," Bush whined.
In the last days of the campaign, Allan Duckworth of the pro-Bush Dallas Morning News was
trying to convince his readers that the race was heading for aPrescott's networks, the millions of dollars, the recordings, and the endorsements of 36 ne "photo finish." But in the end,wspapers (^)
were of no avail for Bush. Yarborough defeated Bush by a margin of 1,463,958 to 1,134,337.
Within the context of the LBJ landslide victory over Goldwater, Bush had done somewhat better
than his party's standard bearer: LBJ beat Goldwater in Texas by 1,663,185 to 958,566.
Yarborough, tblack districts, and also ran well ahead among Latinos. Bush won the the usual Republican counties,hanks in part to his vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act, won a strong majority of the (^)
including the pockets of GOP support in the Houston area.
Yarborough would continue for one more term in the Senate, vocally opposing the war in Vietnam.
In the closing days of the campaign he had spoken of Busand society when nobody speaks for the working man." George Bush, defeated though heh and his retinue as harbingers of a "time was,
would now redouble his struggle to make such a world a reality. Yarborough, although victorious,
appears in retrospect as the fading rearguard of an imperfect but better America that would
disappear during the late sixties and seventies.
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NOTES:



  1. George Bush and Victor Gold, Looking Forward (New York, 1987), p. 84.

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