The next day Bush was at it again, announcing that he was re- opening an investigation
into alleged courses in political sabotage and dirty tricks taught by the GOP to college
Republicans in weekend seminars during 1971 and 1972. Bush pledged to "get to the
bottom" of charges that the College Republican National Committee, with 1000 campus
clubs and 100,000 members listed had provided instruction in dirty tricks. ""I'm a little
less relaxed and more concerned than when you first brought it to our attention," Bush
told journalists. [fn 43]
Bush had clearly distanced himself from the fate of the Nixon White House. By the time
Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president on October 10, 1973, Bush was in a position to
praise Agnew for his "great personal courage" while endorsing the resignation as "in the
best interest of the country." [fn 44]
Later the same month came Nixon's Saturday night massacre, the firing of Special
Prosecutor Cox and the resignation of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy,
William Ruckelshaus. To placate public opinion, Nixon agreed to obey a court order
compelling him to hand over his White House tapes. Bush had said that Nixon was
suffering from a "confidence crisis" about the tapes, but now commented that what Nixon
had done "will have a soothing effect. Clearly it will help politically...Hopefully, his
move will cool the emotions and permit the President to deal with matters of enormous
domestic and international concern." [fn 45] Later, in November, Bush bowed out of a
possible candidacy in the 1974 Texas gubernatorial race. Speculation was that "the
specter of Watergate" would have been used against him, but Bush preferred
sanctimonious explanations. "Very candidly," he said, being governor of Texas has
enormous appeal to me, but our political system is under fire and I have an overriding
sense of responsibility that compels me to remain in my present job." Bush said that
Watergate was "really almost...nonexistent" as in issue in the Texas race. "Corruption and
clean government didn't show up very high at all," he concluded. [fn 46]
By the spring of 1974, the impending doom of the Nixon regime was the cue for Bush's
characteristic reedy whining. In May of 1974, after a meeting of the Republican
Congressional leadership with Nixon, Bush told his friend Congressman Barber Conable
that he was considering resigning from the RNC. Conable did not urge him to stay on. A
few days later, John Rhodes, who had replaced Gerald Ford as House Minority Leader
when Ford was tapped by Nixon for the vice presidency, told a meeting of House
Republicans that Bush was getting ready to resign, and if he did so, it would be
impossible for the White House to "get anybody of stature to take his place." [fn 47]
But even in the midst of the final collapse, Bush still made occasional ingratiating
gestures to Nixon. Nixon pathetically recounts how Bush made him an encouraging offer
in July, 1974, about a month before the end: "There were other signs of the sort that
political pros might be expected to appreciate: NC Chairman George Bush called the
White House to say that he would like to have me appear on a fund-raising telethon." [fn
48] This is what Bush was telling Nixon. But during this same period, Father John
McLaughlin of the Nixon staff asked Bush for RNC lists of GOP diehards across the