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George H. W. Bush Was Decent Even to Rivals Like Me-Gary Hart
On a Wednesday morning in the United States Senate in February 1984, I was voting against President Ronald Reagan’s plan to renew funding for the B-1 bomber, as I recall. The vice president was in the Presiding Officer’s chair to cast the tiebreaker if necessary.
George H. W. Bush beckoned to me as the clerk was calling the roll. The night before, my campaign for the Democratic nomination for president had scored a somewhat stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary.
“That was amazing what you did last night,” he whispered as reporters in the press gallery eagerly looked down on this scene. He wanted to know the next contest, and I told him the Maine caucuses were coming in a week or two.
“Barb and I have a house in Maine, and you’re welcome to use it while you’re campaigning there,” he said. Shocked, I politely reminded him that I was campaigning for his boss’s job and thus, indirectly, for his, and that it might cause him some awkwardness.
The lesson: Instinctively, he put hospitality over politics.
We’d first crossed paths professionally years before, in the late 1970s, when I was a member of the Senate Select Committee to investigate U.S. intelligence agencies, and Bush was director of the CIA. The committee was exploring excesses, such as assassination attempts and foreign-government overthrows, that predated Bush. But my recollection of that period is that he did all he could to protect the agency from scrutiny and criticism while generally complying, at least minimally, with committee requests for documents and information. (He’d succeeded William Colby, who had revealed to us the “family jewels”—internal agency studies of previous questionable activities—thus enraging career agency operatives.)
...
George H. W. Bush will be remembered as a decent leader in a period of transition to an unhealthy, angry time.
It is telling that he seemed much more comfortable with Barack Obama than Donald Trump. In fact, I would not be surprised if he had offered his home to Mr. Obama during his 2008 or 2012 campaigns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/gary-hart-george-h-w-bush-was-decent-and-humane/577162/
George H. W. Bush beckoned to me as the clerk was calling the roll. The night before, my campaign for the Democratic nomination for president had scored a somewhat stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary.
“That was amazing what you did last night,” he whispered as reporters in the press gallery eagerly looked down on this scene. He wanted to know the next contest, and I told him the Maine caucuses were coming in a week or two.
“Barb and I have a house in Maine, and you’re welcome to use it while you’re campaigning there,” he said. Shocked, I politely reminded him that I was campaigning for his boss’s job and thus, indirectly, for his, and that it might cause him some awkwardness.
The lesson: Instinctively, he put hospitality over politics.
We’d first crossed paths professionally years before, in the late 1970s, when I was a member of the Senate Select Committee to investigate U.S. intelligence agencies, and Bush was director of the CIA. The committee was exploring excesses, such as assassination attempts and foreign-government overthrows, that predated Bush. But my recollection of that period is that he did all he could to protect the agency from scrutiny and criticism while generally complying, at least minimally, with committee requests for documents and information. (He’d succeeded William Colby, who had revealed to us the “family jewels”—internal agency studies of previous questionable activities—thus enraging career agency operatives.)
...
George H. W. Bush will be remembered as a decent leader in a period of transition to an unhealthy, angry time.
It is telling that he seemed much more comfortable with Barack Obama than Donald Trump. In fact, I would not be surprised if he had offered his home to Mr. Obama during his 2008 or 2012 campaigns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/gary-hart-george-h-w-bush-was-decent-and-humane/577162/
Can't see Mr. Chump acting with such grace.
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