Posted on 03/25/2002 4:58:32 AM PST by billorites
Here in Kennedy Country, the question today is whether voters are ready to pass the torch to a new generation - of Bushes. Jamie Bush, presidential cousin, wants to be Mitt Romney's running mate. No, he really wants to be Mitt Romney's running mate. ``Serving in public office with Mitt Romney as governor and me as lieutenant governor would dramatically increase the leverage of people throughout the state,'' he says. ``It would be a fabulous opportunity. Just let me go. ``A Romney-Bush ticket would be a really strong ticket . . . I don't think either of the other candidacies bring the same kind of opportunity.'' So is he running? Maybe, maybe not. On Saturday, Bush - a 46-year-old insurance consultant from Hingham - was making plans for a mid-week announcement that he's in the race. Yesterday, he pulled back, opting to see if he could ``create an opportunity.'' In other words - can Jim Rappaport be stopped? ``There is an imperial nature about Rappaport's candidacy that is troubling people . . . The problem with the Republican Party in this state is that it does not relate to people,'' Bush says. ``I'd need to see some interest on the part of currently committed Rappaport delegates. Delegates are not committed in a legal way. They can switch. I know I could go to the convention tomorrow and get 15 percent. I wouldn't want to go with any less than 20 percent.'' With nothing in politics being as it seems, what's going on here? Is Romney - shy of anointing a running mate before the April 6 convention but wary of the baggage of both millionaire Rappaport and Jane Swift's Patrick Guerriero - secretly encouraging Bush? Bush says he has discussed his interest with Romney's ``people,'' and believes Romney wants to avoid ``dissing'' Rappaport. Is the Bush family - either the former president or the current one - pushing for a foothold in the heavily Democratic Bay State? ``The White House is aware of my interest and has not encouraged or discouraged my interest because there is a primary,'' he said. The son of Prescott S. Bush Jr. says he talked in general terms about running for lieutenant governor with his uncle, former President George H.W. Bush last fall, but won't reveal what advice he got. ``I'd like to dispel this notion that because my name is Bush that I am cut from a certain cloth or fit a certain stereotype,'' he says. ``I'm from the all-name, no-money Bush family. I have a mortgage I sometimes struggle to meet. I drive a '94 Volvo we bought used.'' There is, if you look hard, some resemblance to Poppy Bush, or actually, more like Dana Carvey playing Poppy Bush. Bush says he has inherited a ``service gene'' that has made the lieutenant governor's race appear as ``a calling.'' Whether anybody will pick up the phone is another matter. Jamie Bush - despite his instant name recognition - is a virtual unknown politically. Twice in the last decade or so, he has stepped to the starting line - once expressing interest in a congressional seat and once in the state treasurer's job - and both times walked away. He is anti-death penalty in this heavily pro-penalty state: ``I have a real problem with taking life.'' Like Romney, he says he would not interfere with the right to abortion: ``It's such a non-issue for me. I'm pro-choice because there isn't any other choice. I don't know anybody who thinks abortion is a good thing, but to go out and tell a woman she cannot have an abortion, it's just not my call.'' He calls abortion a ``male-perpetrated crime on women'' because irresponsible behavior leads to unwanted pregnancies. Asked about public funding for abortions, he has no opinion. And it remains to be seen how the devoutly religious Bush - who started prayer breakfasts for corporate and community types at the Four Seasons - would impact a candidacy where Romney's own strong Mormon ties may be an issue. At first blush, it appears as though Bush presents the same privileged white male problem to Romney as Rappaport, but his work launching the ``I Have a Dream'' college scholarship fund for Dorchester kids has given him urban and minority contacts and credibility. Jamie Bush is waiting for either a groundswell or a sink hole, but whatever he decides, both Guerriero and Rappaport just felt another little tremor.
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