Being Poppy by Richard Ben Cramer

Author:Richard Ben Cramer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

IT WAS THAT SPRING, ’62, when Houston’s party leaders came to Bush’s house for lunch. Oh, they were in an awful bind.

The GOP was growing in Houston—in fact, it was on the rise all over Texas. (They’d even elected a Senator in ’61, when LBJ had to give up his seat to assume the Vice Presidency. They got that runty professor, John Tower—a couple of party leaders held him down on a table and shaved off his little Hitler mustache—and sent him out as a single-shot Republican against a field of about seventy Democrats . . . and he won!)

But the problem was how the Republican Party was growing. The GOP had papered the state with its new slogan, “Conservatives Unite!” Of course, no one dreamed what that might mean. They had pried the right wing loose from the Democrats. The party meetings were bigger than ever, but those new Republican voters—they were extreme, on the fringe, they were . . . well, they were Birchers!

These . . . these nuts! They were coming out of the woodwork! (Actually, they came out of a couple of fringy churches in the working-class suburb of Pasadena.) These people talked about blowing up the United Nations, about armed revolt against the income tax. They had their guns loaded at home, in case commies should appear that night. . . . Well, you can imagine how upsetting it was to decent Republicans—that is, to the lime-green pants crowd, who’d organized the GOP in Texas about the same time they’d founded their country clubs.

In fact, in the last Party convention, in Houston, right there in Harris County, it was everything decent folk could do just to hold on to the leadership. Jimmy Bertron was their candidate for county chairman—such a fine young man!—the man who’d shaved John Tower and steered him to the Senate. But the Birchers poured in; they were packing the place! (Bob Crouch, one of the old-line faithful, had to head over to the black side of town “to round up some Toms” . . . at least they’d vote right.)

Well, it was a bitter fight to the end. But when all the ballots were counted, Bertron held on—by sixteen votes! . . . Landslide Bertron!

The Party was saved!

But not for long. Now, in ’62, Jimmy Bertron wanted to move to Florida. In fact, he was leaving, and leaving the chair . . . the Party was up for grabs again.

That’s why they came to George Bush.

“George, you’ve got to help us! You’ve got to run for chairman!”

Well, wasn’t it great, how it worked out?

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