Senator Leahy. Are there others?
Bush was on the edge of having his entire Watergate past come out in the wash, but the liberal
Democrats were already far too devoted to the one-party state to grill Bush seriously. In a few
seconds, responding to another question from Hart, Bush was off the hook, droning on about
plausible deniability, of all things:"...and though I undethink it is extremely difficult." rstand the need for plausible deniability, I
In his next go-round, Hart asked Bush about the impact of the cuthroat atmosphere of the Cold War
and its impact on American values. Bush responded: "I am not going to sit here and say we need to
match ruthlessness with ruthlessness. I do feminimize these problems that offend our Americans. We are living in a very complicated, difficultel we need a covert capability and I hope that it can (^)
world." This note of support for covert operations would come up again and again. Indicative of
Bush's thinking was his response to a query from Hart about whether he would support a US
version of the British Official Secrets Act, which defines as a state secret any official information
which has not been formally released to the public, with stiff criminal penalties for those whodivulge or print it. In the era of FOIA, Bush did not hesitate: "Well, I understand that was one of the (^)
recommendations of the Rockefeller Commission. Certainly I would give it some serious attention."
Which reeks of totalitarianism.
The next day, December 16, 1975, ChurcBush. After citing evidence of widespread public concern about the renewed intrusion of the CIA inh, appearing as a witness, delivered his phillipic against (^)
domestic politics under Bush, Church reviewed the situation:
So here we stand. Need we find or look to higher places than the Presidency and the nominee
himself to confirm the fact that this door [of the Vice Presidency in 1976] is left open and that he
remains under active consideration for the ticket in 1976?wake of Watergate, and this committee has before it a candidate for Director of the CIA, a man of We stand in this position in the close (^)
strong partisan political background and a beckoning political future. Under these cirumstances I
find the appointment astonishing. Now, as never before, the Director of the CIA must be completely
above political suspicion. At the very least this committee, I believe, should insist that the nominee
disavow any place on the 1976 Presidential ticket. [...] I bethat the nominee disavow any place on the 1976 Presidential ticket. Otherwise his position as CIAlieve that this committee should insist (^)
Director would be hoplessly compromised. [...] Mr. Chairman, let us not make a travesty out of our
efforts to reform the CIA. The Senate and the people we represent have the right to insist upon a
Central Intelligence Agency which is politically neutral and totally professional. It is strange that I
should have to come before this of all committees to make that argument.[...]
If Ambassador Bush wants to be Director of the CIA, he should seek that position. If he wants to be
Vice President, then that ought to be his goal. It is wrong for him to want both positions, even in a
Bicentennial year.
It was an argument that conceded far too much to Bush in the effort to be fair. Bush was
incompetent for the post, and the argument should have ended there. Church's unwillingness to
demand the unqualified rejection of such a nominee no matter what future goodies he was willing
temporarily to renounce has cast long shadows over subsequent American history. But even so,
Bush was in trouble. The other senators questioned ChurcBush, demanding that Church certify George for the GOP ticket in 1976, wh. Thurmond was a bullying partisan forhich Church was
unwisely willing to do. Senator Tower wanted to know about Church's own presidential ambitions,
and brought up that the press corps called the Senate Intelligence Committee the "Church for
President" committee. Why didn't Church renounce his presidential ambitions so as to give his
criticism more credibility? Goldwater spun out a mitigating defense of Bush. Church fought back