irrelevant." By contrast, from the point of view of the Texas Observer, "His opponent,
George Bush, is a conservative man. He favors the war in Vietnam; he was for
Goldwater, although probably reluctantly; he is nobody's firebrand. Yet Bush is simply
civilized in race relations, and he is now openly rejecting the support of the John Birch
Society. This is one case where electing a Republican to Congress would help preserve
the two-party balance of the country and at the same time spare Texas the
embarrassment" of having somebody like Briscoe go to Washington. [fn 5] Bush's
ideological face-lifting was working. "I want conservatism to be sensitive and dynamic,
not scared and reactionary," Bush told the Wall Street Journal.
Briscoe appears in retrospect as a candidate made to order for Bush's new moderate
profile, and there are indications that is just what he was. Sources in Houston recall that
in 1966 there was another Democratic candidate for the new Congressional seat, a
moderate and attractive Democrat named Wildenthal. These sources say that Bush's
backers provided large-scale financial support for Briscoe in the Democratic primary
campaign, with the result that Wildenthal lost out to Briscoe, setting up the race that Bush
found to his advantage. A designer district was not enough for George; he also required a
designer opponent if he was to prevail-- a fact which may be relevant to the final
evaulation of what happened in 1988.
One of the key points of differentiation between Bush and Briscoe was on race. The
district had about 15% black population, but making some inroads here among registered
Democrats would be of decisive importance for the GOP side. Bush made sure that he
was seen sponsoring a black baseball team, and talked a lot about his work for the United
Negro College Fund when he had been at Yale. He told the press that "black power"
agitators were not a problem among the more responsible blacks in Houston "I think the
day is past," Bush noted, "when we can afford to have a lily white district. I will not
attempt to appeal to the white backlash. I am in step with the 1960's." Bush even took up
a position in the Office of Economic Opportunity anti-povety apparatus in the city. He
supported Project Head Start. By contrast, Briscoe "accused" Bush of courting black
support, and reminded Bush that other Texas Congressmen had been voting against civil
rights legislation when it came up in Congress. Briscoe had antagonized parts of the
black community by his relentless pursuit of the death penalty in cases involving black
capital defendants. According to the New York Times, "Negro leaders have mounted a
quiet campaign to get Negroes to vote for [Bush]."
Briscoe's campaign ads stressed that he was a right-winger and a Texan, and accused
Bush of being "the darling of the Lindsey [sic]- Javits crowd," endorsed by labor unions,
liberal professors, liberal Republicans and liberal syndicated columnists. Briscoe was
proud of his endorsements from Gov. John Connally and the Conservative Action
Committee, a local right-wing group. One endorsement for Bush that caused Briuscoe
some difficulty was that of Bush mentor Richard M. Nixon. By 1966, Nixon was on the
comeback trail, having wihstood the virtual nervous breakdown he had undergone after
losing his bid for the governorship of California in 1962. Nixon was now in the course of
assembling the delegates that would give him the GOP presidential nomination in Miami