At the time of his election, 38-year old George was not exactly a household word, not
even in Houston. In announcing his victory, the Houston Chronicle printed the picture of
a totally different person, captioned as "George Bush," the man who wanted to "hone the
party to a fine edge for the important job ahead in 1964"--that is to say, for the Goldwater
for President campaign. [fn 11] As chairman, Bush was free to appoint the officers of the
county GOP. Some of these choices are not without relevance for the future course of
world history. For the post of party counsel, Bush appointed William B. Cassin of Baker
and Botts, Shepherd and Coates law firm. For his assistant county chairmen, Bush tapped
Anthony Farris, Gene Crossman, Roy Goodearle, and for executive director, William R.
Simmons. Not to be overloooked is the choice of Anthony J.P. "Tough Tony" Farris. He
had been a Marine gunner aboard dive bombers and torpedo bombers during the war, and
had later graduated from the University of Houston Law School, subsequently setting up
a general law practice in the Sterling Building in downtown Houston. The "P" stood for
Perez, and Farris was a wheelhorse in the Mexican-American community with the
"Amigos for Bush" in a number of campaigns. Farris was an unsuccessful Congressional
candidate, but was later rewarded by the Nixon administration with the post of United
States Attorney in Houston. Then Farris was elected to the Harris County bench in 1980.
When George Bush's former business partner and constant crony, J. Hugh Liedtke of
Pennzoil, sued Texaco for damages in the celebrated Getty Oil case of 1985, it was Judge
Tough Tony Farris who presided over most of the trial and made the key rulings on the
way to the granting of the biggest damage award in history, an unbelievable $
11,120,976,110.83, all for the benefit of Bush's good friend J. Hugh Liedtke. [fn 12]
On March 21, Bush told the Houston Chronicle that the Harris County GOP is
"conservative," and not "extremist:" "The Republican party in the past -- and sometimes
with justification-- has been connected in the mind of the public with extremism," said
Bush. "We're not, or at least most of us are not, extremists. We're just responsible
people." Bush pledged that his message would be the same all over the county, and that
he would "say the same things in River Oaks as in the East End, or in Pasadena."
At the same time that he was inveighing against extremism, Bush was dragooning his
party apparatus to mount the Houston Draft Goldwater drive The goal of this effort was
to procure 100,000 signatures for Goldwater, with each signer also plunking down a
dollar to fill the GOP coffers. "An excellent way for those who support Goldwater-like
me- to make it known," opined Chairman George. Bush fostered a partisan --one might
say vindictive-- mood at the county GOP headquarters: the Houston Chronicle of June 6,
1963 reports that GOP activists were amusing themselves by tossing darts at a balloons
suspended in front of a photograph of President Johnson. Bush told the Chronicle: "I saw
the incident and it did not offend me. It was just a gag."
But Bush's pro-Goldwater efforts were not universally appreciated. In early July Craig
Peper, the current chairman of the party finance committee, stood up in a party gathering
and attacked the leaders of the Draft Goldwater movement, including Bush as "right wing
extremists." Bush had not been purging any Birchers, but he was not willing to permit
such attacks from his left. Bush accordingly purged Peper, demanding his resignation