President Bush attended an early morning breakfast fund raiser in California for Bill Simon before heading to New Mexico, where he stumped for Republican 2nd District candidate Steve Pearce. Bush used the New Mexico stop to once again promote his forest management initiative. Enjoy your daily dose of Dubya!
I didn't realize that Kelsey Grammar was a conservative! Let's see....I'll add him to my (way too) short list of conservative actors/actresses........Arnold Schwarznegger, Mel Gibson, James Garner, Bo Derek, Tom Selleck, Charlton Heston. Anybody know any more?
Some people do grey early. My husband had grey hear when he was 25, and a uncle of mine had white hear when he was in his 40's and so did a uncle of my husband's
Good for Kelsey Grammar for going to the fundraiser. I have heard before that he is a Republican - and this pretty much outs him now.
And I hope that the lone guy with the BUSH/CHENEY is not Melrose Larry Green of Howard Stern fame - but it sure looks like him.
Kelsey .. your wife's surgery is showing ... jeesh.
Thanks for posting the pixes tonight!!
The following is a GREAT article from the Las Cruces Sun-News (
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ ). The article features yet another BushBuck!!:
Article Last Updated:
Friday, August 23, 2002 - 11:37:10 PM MST
Former New Mexico State Athletics Director Jim Paul knows President George Bush from the days when both men worked in baseball.
Sun-News file photo by Norm Dettlaff
Former NMSU AD recounts friendship with Bush
By Brook Stockberger
Standing in the aisle of a commercial passenger jet, Jim Paul extended his arm to shake hands with George Walker Bush, but a secret service agent grabbed Paul by his outstretched arm. There had been threats from Colombian drug lords so Bush, oldest son of the sitting president of the United States, had to have a security detail; but he chafed slightly under the watchful eye of the agent. He told his secret service shadow to let go of the Paul's arm.
Just several moments earlier, Paul had walked down the aisle in the jet's first class cabin to shake hands with Bush, the owner of the Texas Rangers. He had thrust his hand forward and breathed out a "Hey George" before the agent reacted.
"We were flying back from Nashville, Tennessee," explained Jim Paul, former athletics director at New Mexico State. "It was in December (1991) after the winter baseball meetings. We had a non-stop to Dallas."
At the time, Paul was owner of the El Paso Diablos minor league baseball team and widely credited with helping revive the game of minor league baseball. For 22 years he guided the Diablos and the team broke six attendance records. He was honored as the National AA Executive of the Year three times by the Sporting News and won the Texas League's Executive of the Year Award four times.
Paul first met Bush in 1989 at a Texas Rangers game. Bush and a group of investors had purchased the Major League Baseball club that year. They were introduced by a mutual acquaintance and Paul was happy to learn that Bush knew of his accomplishments.
Two years later, sitting two rows ahead of Bush on the plane, Paul decided to be neighborly.
"I was in first class using my bonus miles," Paul said. "At that time the Colombian cartel was making noise so he had to travel with a secret service guy. I'm on the plane about two rows up, so I go back and I say 'Hey George' and this guy grabbed my arm. And (Bush) said, 'Hey that's Jim Paul.'"
Friendships have started in stranger ways.
"Where are you sitting," Paul remembers Bush asking him. "I said 'Two rows up' so he told that (secret service) guy, 'You'll sit up there.'"
Paul sat down next to the future president and struck up a conversation.
Paul will be on hand today to help welcome Bush to Las Cruces. The former NMSU athletics director and his wife, Connie, recently paid a visit to President Bush and first lady Laura Bush at the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas. And while he admits that contact with Bush has been, for obvious reasons, hard to come by the past two years, he's happy to see his friend again.
And it all started with a conversation on an airplane when both men still worked in baseball.
"We sat together the whole time talking about just everything," Paul remembered. "He definitely knows five times as much as I do about baseball - I've sat with him at baseball games and he can just say 'watch this player,' he can tell you exactly what he's going to do; he knows the game - and I knew five times as much as he did about promotion and public relations of baseball; I know the marketing. It was fun for us to discuss. So we had a good talk."
The experience had future ramifications.
Paul said: "The last 15 minutes before we got off the flight, after spending that much close time with him, I said, 'God, George you see life different than most people; you have visions and convictions. I know you're too damn smart to ever want to be in politics and I despise politics, but if you ever decide to run for something, as much as I despise it, I would jump in and help because people like you are rare. You really are a man of conviction and honesty.'"
Paul did not think his words made a deep impact.
"He said 'OK,'" Paul said. "He and the secret service guys got in a car and took off."
Two years later, though, Bush took Paul up on his offer.
Paul picked up the phone to hear Bush's voice, "Hey Pablo."
Bush loves to use nicknames.
"He's great with remembering people but he doesn't remember all their names, he throws nicknames on people and that's how he remembers," Paul said. "I'm Pablo."
"He calls me up and says 'Hey Pablo, you remember that conversation on the plane we had a couple of years ago?' And I said 'Yes, I'm surprised you do."
This is how Paul recalled the conversation:
Bush: "Remember what you said about helping me in politics?"
Paul: "But you're not going to do that are you?"
Bush: "Yes I am."
Paul said he thought for a moment.
"I said OK, you're going to run for House of Representatives, and he said 'No, no, no.'" Paul recalled. "And I said 'Geez George, that only leaves the senate race and with Kay Bailey (Hutchinson) and Phil Graham, you don't want to compete against them, they're both Republicans. You don't want to do that.'"
Bush said: "I'm not going to do that."
Paul: "What the hell else is there?"
Bush: "Governor."
Paul: "Against Ann Richards? She's very very popular. Ann Richards, queen of the bubbas."
Bush: "Yes."
Paul: "Are you sure?"
Bush: "Yes."
Then the owner of the Texas Rangers explained why we wanted the top office in Texas.
Bush: "She's lied to us, she's never done what she promised to do. Our education system in Texas is the worst it's ever been. She's done nothing to help education. And that's my first priority. Get education back on track in Texas."
Paul: "Are you sure you want to get involved "
Bush: "Pablo are you going to help me or not?"
Paul: "Just count on me. I don't know what to do, but we'll figure out something."
Bush: "Don't worry Pablo, we're going to beat her."
Paul said he knew the climb would be steep.
"The first poll, it was 75-25, only 25 percent of the people were going to vote for him," Paul said. "But he's not going to let a popularity poll ever change what he thinks. He doesn't care what polls say. He knows what is right. He knows that what is right isn't always what is popular."
Paul said he told Bush he'd jump into the process with both feet.
"I said, 'I don't know anything about politics and I don't know anything about the Republican Party except I know it's not very strong in El Paso, it's in disarray," Paul said.
"I told myself, 'I'm just going to go out and find guys like me, people who want to see the best person who has the best ability and whose No. 1 priority is what is best for the state of Texas,'" Paul remembered. "I went out and found a bunch of guys like me. Independent businessmen, most of them under the age of 45, who had never done much in politics."
Paul arranged a meeting in El Paso.
"I had 25 people come to the baseball park and told George when they were going to be there and he showed up," he said. "I had never heard him speak publicly. So he spoke (El Paso's) Cohen Stadium in the Hall of Fame room."
The meeting left a lasting impression.
"I was always a big John Kennedy fan, when we were at college we used to watch his press conferences," Paul said. "He was such a charismatic person, he was off the cuff and funny. Young people like me loved it.
"When George talked to this group about what was right and what was wrong, he was so sincere about it," he said.
"How did I do Pablo?" Bush asked Paul.
"I said 'I never heard you speak, but I can tell you the hair stood up on the back of my neck,'" Paul replied. "He had charisma like Kennedy. Kennedy's charisma came across on TV real well, George has the same thing, but it doesn't come across on TV as well. If you ever see him in person, he'll knock you dead."
After the talk, Paul couldn't wait to help Bush become the governor of Texas.
"I said 'Let's go, now I'm really inspired,'" he said. "He came two more times for me. In those days we didn't raise a lot of money. Of course he lost El Paso because it's 80 percent Democrat. But he came close."
Paul was also involved in Bush's 1998 reelection campaign and the 2000 run for the White House
"(1998) was a slam dunk, everybody was getting on board after that," Paul said. "Fund raising for that thing was not much of an effort."
When it came time to help Bush run for president, Paul tapped some of his baseball connections.
"The San Diego Super Chicken (a mascot) gave me $1,000 for Bush. I called people in baseball. I'm not so sure Bud Selig didn't give me money," Paul said.
Paul tapped El Paso as well.
"For president, in a county that's 80 percent democratic, I personally raised more money than the entire democratic county gave Clinton in both of his elections," he added. "Most of it came from independent people. I contacted everybody I knew, every relative I had."
Despite his disdain for the world of politics, Paul is proud of his work with Bush.
"The belief I had in this person really manifested itself in 9/11," he said. "I can't think of anybody in the world I'd rather have had in that situation."
Today, Paul will meet Bush for the first time since the 2000 campaign, when the future president introduced Paul to his running mate, Dick Cheney.
"The last time I visited face to face with him was when he was in Mesilla (during the campaign)," Paul remembered. "He was in the Double Eagle (restaurant). The security guys have trouble keeping up with him sometimes and he was the first one through the door and he's walking by the bar and he said, 'Pablo, man I'm glad to see you, come here, I want you to meet a hell of a guy; Cheney come here.'"
The vice president will not be on hand today, but Paul and Bush might get a chance to talk a little baseball.
