country for the purpose of generating support statements for Nixon. Bush refused to
provide them. [fn 49]
On August 5, 1974, the White House released the transcript of the celebrated "smoking
gun" taped conversation of June 23, 1972 in which Nixon discussed ways to frustrate the
investigation of the Watergate break-ins. Chairman George was one of the leading Nixon
Administration figures consulting with Al Haig in the course of the morning. When Bush
heard the news, he was very upset, undoubtedly concerned about all the very negative
publicity that he himself was destined to receive in the blowback of Nixon's now
imminent downfall. Then after a while he calmed down somewhat. One account
describes Bush as "somewhat relieved" by the news that the coup de grace tape was going
to be made public, "an act probably fatal," as Haig had said. "Finally there was some one
thing the national chairman could see clearly. The ambiguities in the evidence had been
tearing the party apart, Bush thought." [fn 50] At this point Bush became the most
outspoken and militant organizer of Nixon's resignation, a Cassius of the Imperial
Presidency.
A little later White House Congressional liaison William Timmons wanted to make sure
that everyone had been fully briefed about the transcripts going out, and he turned to
Nixon's political counselor Dean Burch. "Dean, does Bush know about the transcript
yet?", Timmons asked. Burch replied, "Yes." "Well, what did he do?", Timmons asked.
"He broke out in assholes and shit himself to death," was Burch's answer. [fn 51]
But why, it may be asked, the dermal diahhrea? Why should Bush be so distraught over
the release to the press of the transcript of the notorious White House meeting of June 23,
1972, whose exhcanges between Nixon and Haldeman were to prove the coup de grace to
the agony of the Nixon regime? As we have seen, there is plenty of evidence that the final
fall of Nixon was just the denouement that Bush wanted. The answer is that Bush was
upset about the fabulous "smoking gun" tape because his friend Mosbacher, his business
partner Bill Liedtke, and himself were referred to in the most sensitive passages. Yes, a
generation of Americans has grown up recalling something about a "smoking gun" tape,
but not many now recall that when Nixon referred to "the Texans," he meant George
Bush. ("Das Bekannte ueberhaupt ist darum, weil es bekannt ist, nicht erkannt," as even
old Hegel knew.)
The open secret of the much-cited but little analyzed "smoking gun" tape is that it refers
to Nixon's desire to mobilize the CIA to halt the FBI investigation of the Watergate
burglars on the grounds that money can be traced from donors in Texas and elsewhere to
the coffers of the CREEP and thence to the pockets of Bernard Barker and the other
Cubans arrested. The money referred to, of course, is part of Bill Liedtke's $700,000
discussed above. A first crucial passage of the "smoking gun" tape goes as follows, with
the first speaker being Haldeman:
H: Now, on the investigation, you know the Democratic break-in thing, we're back in the problem
area because the FBI is not under control, because [FBI chief] Gray doesn't exactly know how to
control it and they have --their invesitgation is leading into some productive areas because they've