LaRouche of virtually all the votes cast in the Democratic primary, and transfer as many of them as
possible to the Bush column, would be the first installment. Bush is vindictive, and he would notforget this attack by LaRouche. Later Bush would despatch Howard and Tucker, two agents
provocateurs from Midland, Texas to try to infiltrate pro-LaRouche's political circles. From 1986
on, Bush would emerge as a principal sponsor of a judicial vendetta by the Department of Justice
that would see LaRouche and several of his supporters twice indicted, and finally convicted on a
series of trumped-up charges. One week after George Bush's inauguration as president, his mostcapable and determined opponent, Lyndon LaRouche, would be thrown into federal prison.
But in the New Hampshire of 1979-80, LaRouche's attacks on Bush brought into precise focus
many aspects of Bush's personality that voters found profoundly distasteful. LaRouche's attack sent
out a shock wave, which, as it advanced, detonated one turbulent assault on Bush after the other.The spell was broken; Bush was vulnerable.
One who was caught up in the turbulence was William Loeb, the opinionated curmudgeon of
Pride's Crossing, Massachusetts who was the publisher of the Manchester Union-Leader, the most
important newspaper in the state. Loeb had supported Reagan in 1976 a1980. Loeb might have dispersed his fire against all of Reagan's Republican rivals, includingnd was for him again in
Howard Baker, Robert Dole, Phil Crane, John Anderson, John Connally, and Bush. It was the
LaRouche campaign which demonstrated to Loeb long before the Iowa caucuses that Bush was the
main rival to Reagan, and therefore the principal target. As a result, Loeb would launch a barrage of
slashing attacks on Bush. The other GOP contenders would be virtually ignored by Loeb.
Loeb had assailed Ford as "Jerry the Jerk" in 1976; his attacks on Sen. Muskie reduced the latter to
tears during the 1972 primary. Loeb began to play up the theme of Bush as a liberal, as a candidate
controlled by the "internationalist" (or Kissinger) wing of the GOP and the Wall Strreet bankers,
always soft on communism and always ready to undermine liberty through Bihome. A February editorial by Loeb reacted to Bush's Iowa success with these warnings of voteg Government here at
fraud:
The Bush operation in Iowa had all the smell of a CIA covert operation....Strange aspects of the
Iowa operation [included] a long, slow count and then the computers broke down at a very
convenient point, with Bush having a six per cent bulge over Reagan...Will the elite nominate theirman, or will we nominate Reagan? [fn 19]
For Loeb the most damning evidence was Bush's membership in the Trilateral Commission, the
creature of David Rockefeller and the internmational bankers. Carter and his administration had
been packed with Trilateral members; there were indications that the establishment choice of Carterto be the next US president had been made at a meeting of the Trilateral Commission in Kyodo,
Japan, where Carter had been introduced by Gianni Agnelli of Italy's FIAT motor company.
Loeb simplified all that: "George Bush is a Liberal" was the title of his editorial published the day
before the primary. Loeb flayed Bush as a "spoiled little rich kid who has been wet-nursed tosucceed and now, packaged by David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission, thinks he is entitled to (^)
the White House as his latest toy."
Shortly before the election Loeb ran a cartoon entitled "Silk Stocking Republicans," which showed
Bush at a cocktail party with a cigarette and glass in hand. Bush and the other participants, all male,were wearing women's panty-hose. This was the message that Loeb had apparently gotten from
Bush's body language.
Paid political ads began to appear in the Union-Leader sponsored by groups from all over the
country, some helped along by John Sears of the Reagan campaign. One showed a drawing of Bush