Goodearle, presumably acting as the lawyer for the Bush faction, addressed the meeting
on the dangers posed by the sectarians of the John Birch Society to the prospects of the
GOP in Houston and elsewhere. Over lunch prepared by Barbara Bush, Goodearle
outlined the tactical situation in the Harris County organization: a Birchite faction under
the leadership of state senator Walter Mengdon, although still a minority, was emerging
as a powerful inner-party opposition against the liberals and moderates. In the last vote
for GOP county leader, the Birch candidate had been narrowly defeated. Now, after three
years in office, the more moderate county chairman, James A. Bertron, would announce
on February 8, 1963 that he could no longer serve as chairman of the Harris County
Republican Executive Committee. His resignation, he would state, was "necessitated by
neglect of my personal business due to my political activities." [fn 9] This was doubtless
very convenient in the light of what Bush had been planning.
Bertron was quitting to move to Florida. In 1961, Bertron had been attending a
Republican fundraising gathering in Washington DC, when he was accosted by none
other than Senator Prescott Bush. Bush took Bertron aside and demanded: "Jimmy, when
are you going to get George involved?" "Senator, I'm trying," Betron replied, evidently
with some vexation. "We're all trying." [fn 10] In 1961 or at any other time it is doubtful
that George Bush could have found his way to the men's room without the help of a paid
informant sent by Senator Prescott Bush.
Goodearle went on to tell the assembled Republicans that unless a "strong candidate"
now entered the race, a Bircher was likely to win the post of county chairman. But in
order to defeat the well-organized and zealous Birchers, said Goodearle, an anti-Bircher
would have to undertake a grueling campaign, touring the county and making speeches to
the Republican faithful every night for several weeks. Then, under the urging of
Goodearle, the assembled group turned to Bush: could he be prevailed on to put his hat in
the ring? Bush, by his own account, needed no time to think it over, and accepted on the
spot.
With that, George and Barbara were on the road in their first campaign in what Bush later
called "another apprenticeship." While Barbara busied herself with needlepoint in order
to stay awake through a speech she had heard repeatedly, George churned out a pitch on
the virtues of the two-party system and the advantages of having a Republican alternative
to the entrenched Houston establishment. In effect, his platform was the Southern
Strategy avant la lettre. Local observers soon noticed that Barbara Bush was able to gain
acceptance as a campaign comrade for Republican volunteers, in addition ot being
esteemed as the wealthy candidate's wife.
When the vote for county chairman came, the candidate opposing Bush, Russell Prior,
pulled out of the race for reasons that have not been satisfactorily explained, thus
permitting Bush to be elected unanimously by the executive committee. Henceforth,
winning unopposed has been Bush's taste in elections: this is how he was returned to the
House for his second term in 1968, and Bush propagandists flirted with a similar
approach to the 1992 presidential contest.