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George W., Washington Insider

Timothy NoahPosted Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000, at 2:11 PM ET

Can we please retire the notion that George W. Bush is the Washington Outsider in this presidential race? In last night's final presidential debate in St. Louis, Bush's chief tactic was to brand everything that Al Gore said as corrupt Washington doublespeak. Indeed, Bush spat out the word "Washington" so many times (16) and with such contempt that Chatterbox wondered whether the live audience assembled at Washington University would start to take offense. Here's a sampler:

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Now, there's this kind of Washington, D.C., focus, well, it's in this committee or it's got this sponsor. ...

[T]here's a lot of bickering in Washington, D.C. It's kind of like a political issue as opposed to a people issue. ...

If you're from Washington, you want to pick and choose winners. I don't think that's the role of the president. ...

A lot of people are sick and tired of the bitterness in Washington, D.C., and therefore they don't want any part of politics. They look at Washington and see people pointing fingers and casting blame and saying one thing and doing another. ...

One thing about insurance, that's a Washington term. ...

Bush's "I'm a Washington outsider" stance helps him stir populist resentment and gives him a justification for not knowing the details about any given policy--indeed, on occasion, not even knowing what his own party platform advocates. (Chatterbox's favorite example of the latter occurred during the second debate when Bush, asked whether he supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, answered, "Well, I have no idea. I mean, he can throw out all kinds--I don't know the particulars of this law.") But the idea that George W. Bush is free of any Washington taint is ridiculous.

Both presidential candidates are named after prominent Washington-politician fathers. For Bush, however, the nepotism factor looms much larger than it does for Gore. Bush's Washington family tree reaches back two generations (to Connecticut Sen. Prescott Bush). Gore's reaches back only one. Bush is the son of a former president and vice president; Gore is the son of a senator. The basis of Bush's fame and political viability, first as a Texas gubernatorial candidate and now as a presidential candidate, is his father's 12 consecutive years in Gomorrah on the Potomac. (You can also make a decent argument that this is the basis of Dubya's late-blooming financial success.) For Gore, Washington roots are more accurately described as the motivating force behind rather than the explanation for his present political position. Let's state this so starkly that even an undecided voter will grasp Chatterbox's point: If George W. Bush's father hadn't been Ronald Reagan's vice president and successor, George W. Bush wouldn't be this year's Republican nominee for president. As Dubya himself pointed out last night, when he first ran for governor in Texas, "a lot of folks didn't think I could win, including, by the way, my mother. ..."

Both Bush and Gore's presidential candidacies have their origins in family links to Washington. But Gore has been able to add to the advantage of his birth the additional advantages of knowledge about and experience in government at the national level. Bush, on the other hand, flaunts his lack of Washington knowledge and experience while offering himself up to sentimental Republicans as heir to a Washington dynasty. It will be astonishing if he gets away with this.

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.

COMMENTS

Reader Comments from The Fray:

Could we also retire the notion that Al Gore is a Tennessean? The pols talk about how close the race is in Gore's home state. Nothing of the sort is happening. He's leading his home state of DC by 50+ points. Tennessee, on the other hand, is quite a different matter.

--Melody Rush

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The Bush family connections to the Washington power players go back, not just to Senator Prescott Bush, G.H.W Bush's father, but to his maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker and to Uncle Herbert Walker Jr. Both of these men were employees of Brown Brothers, Harriman, a major NY/British investment house, as was Prescott Bush before he became a U.S. Senator. Other employees or retainers of Brown Brothers, Harriman who played a role in the Bush family's rise to power included the Dulles brothers, one became a Sec. of State, the other head of CIA; Robert Lovett, a Sec. of War during WWII, head of the Lovett Committee that was charged to advise on setting up Intelligence activities after WWII (CIA) and later became an advisor to President Johnson during the Vietnam War. Of course, there was W. Averall Harriman himself who became Ambassador to Russia in 1943, Ambassador to Britain in 1946, advisor to presidents for 50 years as well as being elected Gov. of PA.

During the 1920s and '30s, Brown Brothers, Harriman partnered with a German steel baron responsible for financing the Nazi party.

It was through the Brown Brothers, Harriman connection that future President G.H.W. Bush got into the oil business with Dresser Industries beginning a long and still active family connection with oil through what may have been good fortune but looks suspiciously like governmental favoritism. In fact, one could make a pretty good case for Desert Storm being an "oil company war."

This is a very short version of a long and convoluted story about money and power corrupting our country, too long for an e-mail. But, we should all be aware that what the Bush clan stands for is not our republic, but an exclusive club, an oligarchy based, not on achievements, but on connections to a very small group of very wealthy families that exert a disproportionate influence on the direction of our country.

This small, "old boy network" that so strongly influenced our country's direction after WWII is still in action and is clearly backing George W. Bush. Beware this wimpy WASP who shrugs and grins: he has been taught since childhood that he and his ilk are born to rule the rest of us.

--Bill Lyon

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(10/20)

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