For a month, the rumors mounted as President-elect George Bush let his choice to run the Pentagon twist slowly in the wind. Liberal critics complained that former Texas Senator John Tower was too cozy with defense contractors. Some conservatives questioned his fealty to the Strategic Defense Initiative. Gossips whispered about his reputation for boozing and womanizing. Last week, after one of the most prolonged background checks the FBI has ever conducted, Bush finally named Tower his Secretary of Defense.
Why did the selection take so long? Tower, 63, had been mentioned repeatedly by suspects in the Justice Department's "Ill Wind" investigation...
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