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He remembers finding Washington a "hostile environment." The campaign operation was often a mud wrestle among contending egos. "I was the loyalty thermometer," he says. Frequently he cut through bureaucratic inertia to get necessary decisions made. And he was ever leery of leaks and resentful of the personal ties to reporters that Atwater and other heavyweights had. Yet it was Junior who went on the record with a Newsweek correspondent to deny salacious gossip about the candidate. It was a brash act that both got the adultery rumor into print and choked off its circulation. Occasionally Atwater used him as an emissary to the candidate when the mission was delicate. It fell to Junior to present the idea that Bush would strengthen his image by "swinging the ax" on Don Regan at a time when the White House chief of staff was about to topple. The Vice President said no.
According to one associate, George was "terribly insecure around his father," apparently unsure of his standing. Not so, the son insists: "In the campaign, he and I attained a new level of friendship." Then, in a tone sounding more conjectural than convinced, he adds, "I know there were times -- I could just tell -- when he respected my opinion." But he had to guess when.
He did not have to guess about his destination after the election. With Midland suffering hard times, his connection with Harken offered a Dallas base from which to look for a new business and think about politics. But around Thanksgiving he learned from a former partner that a group attempting to buy the Rangers probably would fail to get American League approval. Always fascinated by baseball, Bush hesitated not a moment. Well before opening day in April, he had assembled a syndicate of investors far wealthier than he.
"Being the President's son puts you in the limelight," he says. "While in the limelight, you might as well sell tickets." So on a typical evening recently, while going through his personal pregame drill, he eyeballed the stands. "Looks like around 25,000 tonight," he estimated. That's the number the club needed to break 1 million in attendance, a milestone that came later in previous seasons. Later the gate was announced: 26,244. Though the Rangers < were losing a close game, the new owner beamed. "I like selling tickets," says Bush the businessman. "There are a lot of parallels between baseball and politics," says Bush, the once and future politician.