George W. Bush

Air National Guard

After graduating from Yale in 1968, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard, which allowed him to avoid active military duty in Vietnam.Lardner, George Jr.; Romano, Lois, “At Height of Vietnam, Bush Picks Guard,” The Washington Post, July 28, 1999.  Bush was certified as a fighter pilot, flying the F-102 with the 147th Fighter Wing, but accusations that he was given a coveted spot in the Guard because of family connections and that he failed to serve his full six years would later shadow Bush’s political career.Robinson, Water V., et al, “Bush fell short on duty at Guard, Records show pledges unmet,” The Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2004.

Oil Business Career

Bush followed his father into the oil business, opening Arbusto (“bush” in Spanish) Energy in 1978 in the same Midland building in which he father started in the 1950s.Lardner, George Jr.; Romano, Lois, “Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings,” The Washington Post, July 30, 1999. 

But Arbusto went bust and was bought out in 1983 by Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation. When Spectrum started losing money, it was bought in 1986 by Harken Energy, thanks largely to Bush’s connection to the firm (his dad was Ronald Reagan’s vice president at the time). “I'm all name and no money,” Bush said at the time.Lardner, George Jr.; Romano, Lois, “Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings,” The Washington Post, July 30, 1999.

Spectrum was bought by Harken in a stock deal and, in 1990, Bush sold his 212,140 Harken shares for $4 a share, earning more than $800,000.Lardner, George Jr.; Romano, Lois, “Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings,” The Washington Post, July 30, 1999.  Bush sold the stock just eight days before Harken ended the second quarter with a massive loss and the stock dipped to $2.37 a share, sparking an insider-trading investigation of Bush by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It took no action against Bush.Lardner, George Jr.; Romano, Lois, “Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings,” The Washington Post, July 30, 1999.

Baseball Team Owner

Bush used the proceeds from the sale of his Harken stock to buy a stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1989. His $600,000 share was small compared to others in the investment group, but Bush was made a managing partner and, because of his famous name, became the group’s public face.Trigaux, Robert, “Bush built success on Harken sale,” St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, July 21, 2002 l

Bush helped the team secure a deal on a new stadium, The Ballpark at Arlington, which was built largely with a voter-approved sales tax increase and a variety of local tax subsidies.Jackson, Brooks, “Bush as businessman, How the Texas governor made his millions,” CNN, May 13, 1999.  Bush gained statewide recognition from his regular appearances with the Rangers, a major asset when he ran for governor of Texas in 1994.Trigaux, Robert, “Bush built success on Harken sale,” St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, July 21, 2002  He also earned $14.9 million on his $600,000 investment when the Rangers were sold in 1994.Jackson, Brooks, “Bush as businessman, How the Texas governor made his millions,” CNN, May 13, 1999.
 

Political Career

Bush’s entry into politics followed a well-trod family path. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. senator from Connecticut. His dad served as a diplomat and as CIA director before becoming vice president and then president. His brother, Jeb, became governor of Florida.

In his first bid for office, Bush ran in 1978 for a West Texas congressional seat, which he lost to Democrat Kent Hance.“George Walker Bush,” FamousTexans.com.  Bush worked on his father’s 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns as a senior adviser and liaison with the media, but didn’t run again himself until 1994 when he defeated Democratic incumbent Ann Richards to become the 46th governor of Texas.“George Walker Bush,” FamousTexans.com.

When he ran for re-election as governor in 1998, Bush was already viewed as a possible Republican presidential candidate.Holland, Keating, “Bush, Gore early front-runners for 2000,” CNN, Oct. 27, 1998. In June 1999, he announced his 2000 campaign for the White House.

Presidential Elections

In his first presidential race, Bush ran for office in 2000 as a “compassionate conservative,” pledging in the wake of a sex scandal that enveloped President Bill Clinton to “restore dignity and honor to the White House.”Lewis, Martin, “Libby Verdict Vindicates Bush!,” The Huffington Post, March 26, 2007. 

Despite a virtual coronation by GOP kingmakers, Bush suffered a serious setback in his bid for the GOP nomination when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) beat him in the New Hampshire primary.Yardley, Jim; Bruni, Frank, “Bush Takes Tougher Line and Emphasizes Reform,” The New York Times, Feb. 8, 2000. Bush went on the attack against McCain,Davis, Richard H., “The anatomy of a smear campaign,” The Boston Globe, March 21, 2004. beat him and, with Dick Cheney as his vice presidential running mate, went on to face Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the general election.

In an election that will go down in history, Bush lost the popular vote to Gore, but won enough electoral votes to win office two months after the election when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four ruling, stopped a third recount of ballots in the crucial state of Florida on Dec. 8, 2000.“Bush v. Gore,” Cornell University Law School, Dec. 12, 2000.

Bush won re-election in 2004 by soundly defeating Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).Balz, Dan, “Bush Wins Second Term,” The Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2004. l

Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks

On Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was reading to school children in Sarasota, Fla., when Chief of Staff Andy Card walked over to him and whispered in his ear, “America is under attack.”Matthews, Chris, “Examining the Bush legacy in 'The Decider',” MSNBC, Dec . 29, 2008.  Al-Qaeda terrorists had flown jetliners filled with fuel and passengers into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. A fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

Bush responded to the attacks by declaring a “war on terror.”“On this Day, 2001: US declares war on terror,” BBC, Sept. 12, 2005.  Through legislation and executive fiat, Bush ordered the military invasion of Afghanistan, al-Qaeda’s base of operations, starting inOctober 2001;“Afghanistan wakes after night of intense bombings,” CNN, Oct. 7, 2001. vastly expanded the government’s domestic police and intelligence-gathering powers;Weisman, Jonathan, “Congress Arrives at A Deal on Patriot Act,” The Washington Post , Nov. 17, 2005. created the Department of Homeland Security;“Proposal to Create the Department of Homeland Security,” Department of Homeland Security. and established a detention camp at a U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where “enemy combatants” suspected of terrorist activities were held indefinitelyPorteus, Liza, “Bush: Guantanamo Bay Criticism 'Absurd',” Fox News, June 1, 2005. land interrogated in ways that many critics describe as torture, including the repeated use of simulated drowning or “waterboarding.”Eggen, Dan, “Bush Announces Veto of Waterboarding Ban,” The Washington Post, March 8, 2008.

Iraq War

Nearly a year after the 9/11 attacks, Bush began making the case for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, which he said was part of the “war on terror.” George W. Bush speech, White House, Oct. 2, 2002

Initiating a new “preemptive strike” doctrine,Capaccio, Tony, “Bush Preemptive Strike Doctrine Under Review, May Be Discarded,” Bloomberg News the Bush administration claimed Iraq represented a threat to the U.S. because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons; ties to terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda; and a well-established record of brutality and animus toward America.Kozaryn, Linda D., “Bush Details Iraq's Terrorist Ties,” American Forces Press Service, Feb. 9, 2003.  U.S. forces led the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003.

Public support for the invasion was high at the startBrownstein, Ronald, “Support Grows for Military Actions,” April 5, 2003.  - though 70 percent of Americans then erroneously believed that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks“Poll: 70% believe Saddam, 9-11 link,” USA Today, Sept. 6, 2003.  - but began to decline steadily after no weapons of mass destruction were found, stability remained elusive and U.S. casualties mounted.Sussman, Dalia, “Poll Shows View of Iraq War Is Most Negative Since Start,” May 25, 2007.

Bush, from the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and under the banner “Mission Accomplished,” declared on May 1, 2003 - just two short months after the invasion officially began-  the end of major combat operations in Iraq, an event that would come to symbolize the administrations misjudgments in the lingering war.“Bush pays price for 'Mission Accomplished' sign,” Associated Press/MSNBC, May 1, 2008.  Military and intelligence experts later claimed that Iraq distracted from the “war on terror”Gellman, Barton; Linzer, Dafna, “Afghanistan, Iraq: Two Wars Collide,” The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2004.  and that the invasion itself transformed Iraq into a haven for terrorists, including al- Qaeda.Mazzetti, Mark, “Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat,” The New York Times, Sept. 24, 2006. 

Economic Crisis

Like his father, Bush left office under the cloud of an economic recession, this one the worst since the Great Depression.Stolbert, Sheryl Gay, “Bush's legacy: A recession?,” The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2008.  A year after an economic decline began in December 2007,Isidore, Chris, “It's official: Recession since Dec. '07,” CNNMoney.com, Dec. 1, 2008. the nation’s largest financial institutions, including Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and insurance giant American International Group began to collapse,George, Bill, “Failed Leadership Caused the Financial Crisis,” U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 19, 2008.  the result of massive failures in an over-extended sub-prime mortgage market“Will subprime mess ripple through economy?,” Associated Press/MSNBC, March 13, 2007. and the instability of exotic derivatives in which large financial institutions invested heavily.Wigan, David, “Derivatives markets may hold key to U.S. recession,” Reuters, April 12, 2007. It would become the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.Hilsenrath, Jon; Ng, Serena; Paletta, Damian, “Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight,” The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18, 2008.

Bush responded to the crisis by pushing Congress in late 2008 to pass a $700 billion bailout package for the financial institutions, many of which the administration deemed “too big to fail,” meaning their collapse would cause significant further harm to the U.S. economy.Cho, David, “Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger,” The Washington Post, Aug. 28, 2009 The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was created to buy failing assets from the banks and, eventually, to begin directly buying preferred stock in some of the nation's largest financial institutions. “Bush To Unveil Expanded Bank Bailout Details,” Associated Press/National Public Radio, Oct. 13, 2008.

The economic crisis, soon dubbed The Great Recession,Lahart, Justin, “The Great Recession: A Downturn Sized Up,” The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2009.  like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, continued well after Bush departed office on Jan. 20, 2009, just as Democrat Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president, was being sworn in.“Bush arrives in Texas after leaving Obama note,” Associated Press/MSNBC, Jan. 20, 2009.

Post-Presidency

In contrast to his number two, Dick Cheney, the former president kept a relatively low-profile during his first year out of office, delivering few speeches and pledging not to publicly criticize his successor.

"I'm not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena," Bush said. "He deserves my silence."

Bush went so far as to rebuff some conservatives, including radio host Rush Limbaugh, who said publicly that they want Obama to fail. "I love my country a lot more than I love politics," Bush said. "I think it is essential that he be helped in office.""Bush: Obama 'Deserves My Silence,' Won't Criticize New Administration," Associated Press/Fox News, March 17, 2009.

Bush is at work on his Presidential Library, which will be built on the campus of First Lady Laura Bush's alma mater, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas. The library will also house the George W. Bush Policy Institute, a think tank intended to advance conservative principles, and the George W. Bush Foundation. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fall of 2010 with the opening slated for early 2013. George W. Bush Presidential Library web site.

Interrogation Techniques

In order to win the "war on terror,"Bush authorized the CIA to use “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, in 2002, sparking accusations at home and abroad that he was condoning torture.“Previously secret torture memo released,” CNN, July 24, 2008.  But Bush denied that the U.S. used torture, saying detainees were “enemy combatants” instead if prisoners-of-war, and thus not covered by Geneva Convention protections.“Cheney Defends U.S. Use Of Waterboarding,” Associated Press/CBS, Feb. 8, 2008.  A secret Justice Department memo later made public said such techniques could be used if U.S. interrogators acted in “good faith” and under the “honest belief” that they were not simply to inflict “severe pain and suffering.”“Previously secret torture memo released,” CNN, July 24, 2008. 

Bush also authorized the use of “extraordinary rendition,” a program in which suspects were secretly flown to other countries to be interrogated by U.S. allies known to use torture.Mayer, Jane, “Outsourcing Torture, The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program,” The New Yorker, Feb. 14, 2005.

In June 2006, the Supreme Court knocked down Bush’s executive order allowing detainees to be helt at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely and without access to U.S. courts, but Bush in 2006 won congressional approval for legislation that salvaged the military tribunals he sought as well as the flexibility to continue use harsh interrogation techniques.“Bush's detainee interrogation and prosecution plan approved by Senate,” Associated Press/USA Today, Sept. 28, 2006.  When Congress tried to impose new restrictions in 2008, Bush vetoed the bill.“CIA needs this kind of 'valuable' tool to prevent attacks, president says,” Associated Press/MSNBC, March 8, 2008.   

Domestic Wiretapping

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin intercepting communications between people in the United States and overseas to ferret out potential terrorist threats."Bush-era wiretap program had limited results, report finds," CNN, July 12, 2009.  When The New York Times revealed the existence of the program in 2005, critics charged that Bush was violating the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), created to curb Watergate-era domestic spying abuses, because the NSA did not get the proper FISA warrants needed to spy legally within the United States."Bush says he signed NSA wiretap order," CNN, Dec. 17, 2005

As a result of the disclosure, the Senate refused to renew portions of the USA Patriot Act, which gave the executive branch expanded police and surveillance powers."Bush: Senate vote on Patriot Act 'irresponsible'," CNN, Dec. 17, 2005.  In 2008, however, Congress agreed to changes Bush sought in the FISA law, giving U.S. intelligence agencies greater flexibility when using wiretaps domestically.

The new law also granted immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the NSA spy on domestic communications,Lemos, Robert, "Bush signs wiretap law, gets sued," Security Focus, July 11, 2008.  helping to shield them from lawsuits filed by civil- liberties groups that said the program violated the rights of average Americans.McCullagh, Declan, "Bush wants to derail wiretapping lawsuit against AT&T," CNET, May 4, 2007. l

Libby Pardon

In 2007, Bush commuted "Scooter" Libby’s prison sentence after the vice president’s top aide was convicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. The chargest stemmed from an investigation of White House officials suspected of leaking the identity of a former CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to the media in 2003.

The leak, prosecutors said, was intended to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Wilson determined that Iraq had not tried to buy nuclear material for a bomb in Africa as the Bush administration claimed and accused the administration of ignoring intelligence that ran counter to their desire to go to war in Iraq. Sanger, David; Johnston, David, "Special prosecutor links White House to CIA leak Fitzgerald says many wanted to undermine administration critic," The New York Times, April 11, 2006.

But Bush angered conservatives, including Cheney, when he refused during his last days in office to fully pardon Libby. Bush offered no explanation for his decision, though he said earlier that “our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth.”Isikoff, Michael, “No Pardon For Libby,” Newsweek, Jan 19, 2009. =