But before signing this as an affidavit, Codevilla crossed out "am aware" to "have heard" in the firstsentence. In the second sentence, he cancelled "identify others" and put in "discuss these rumors."
Active intelligence community officers who might have worked for the Bush campaign while still
drawing their federal payroll checks were likely to have been in violation the Hatch Act, which
prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.
Baker was the obvious choice to be Bush's campaign manager. He had served Bush in this function
in the failed senate campaign of 1970. During the Ford years, Baker had advanced to become
Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Baker had been the manager of Ford's failed 1976 campaign.
Bringing Baker into the Bush campaign meant that he could bring with him many of the Ford
political operatives and much of the Ford political apparatus and volunteers in a number of states. Inthe 1978, Baker had attempted to get himself elected attorney general of Texas, but had been
defeated. David Keene was political advisor. As always, no Bush campaign would be complete
without Robert Mosbacher heading up the national finance operation. Mosbacher's experience, as
we have seen, reached back to the Bill Lietdke conveyances to Maurice Stans of the CREEP in
- Teaming up with Mosbacher were Fred Bush in Houston and Jack Sloat in Washington.
With the help of Baker and Mosbacher, Bush began to set up political campaign committees that
could be used to convoy quasi-legal "soft money" into his campaign coffers. This is the classic
stratagem of setting up political action committees that are registered with the Federal Election
Commission for the alleged purposRepublican (or Democratic) candidates. In reality, almost all of the money is used for thee of channeling funds into the campaigns of deserving (^)
presidential candidate's own staff, office, mailings, travel, and related expenses. Bush's principal
vehicle for this type of funding was called the Fund for Limited Government. During the first 6
months of 1987, this group collected $99,000 and spent $46,000, of which only $2,500 went to
other candidates. The rest was in effect spent to finance Bush's campaign preparations. Bush had asecond PAC called the Congressional Leadership Committee, with Senator Howard Baker and
Congressman John Rhodes on the board, which did manage to dole out the princely sum of $500 to
each of 21 GOP office-seekers.
The cash for the Fund for LTexas, including Pennzoil, Haggar Slacks, McCormick Oil and Gas, Houston Oil and Minerals, andimited Government came from 54 fat cat contributors, half of them in (^)
Texas Instruments. Money also came in from Exxon, McDonnell-Douglas, and Clairol cosmetics.
[fn 12]
Despite the happy facade, Bush's campaign staff was plagued by turmoil and morale problems,leading to a high rate of turnover in key posts. One who has stayed on all along has been Jennifer (^)
Fitzgerald, a British woman born in 1932 who had been with Bush since at least Beijing. Fitzgerald
later worked in Bush's vice-presidential office, first as appointments secretary, and later as
executive assistant. According to some Washington wags, she controlled access to Bush in the same
way that Martin Bormann controlled access to Hitler. According to Harry Hurt, among formstaffers "Fitzgerald gets vituperative reviews. She has been accused of bungling the 1980 er Bush
presidential campaign by cancelling Bush appearances at factory sites in favor of luncheon club
speeches. Critics of her performance say she misrepresents staff scheduling requests and blocks
access to her boss." "A number of the vice president's close friends worry that 'the Jennifer problem'
--or the appearance of one-- may inihibt Bush's future political career. 'There's just something abouther that makes him feel good,' says one trusted Bush confidant. 'I don't think it's sexual. I don't
know what it is. But if Bush ever runs for president again, I think he's going to have to make a
change on that score.'" [fn 13]
Bush formally announced his presidential candidacy on May 1, 1979. One of Bush's themes was the