Bush Vote Divided in GOP Race
President, Father Are Silent as Others Pick

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 6, 2007; A01

George P. Bush had just finished telling his father, the former governor of Florida, that he had decided to endorse former senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee for president.

Jeb Bush assured his eldest son that all the Republican candidates are "great" and that whatever he did would be okay with him and the family. Then he offered an unsolicited piece of advice to the young namesake of the 41st and 43rd presidents.

"His personal recommendation was to stay out of the madness of politics and focus on work," George P. Bush recalled last week. Instead, the 31-year-old venture capitalist from Fort Worth signed on to raise at least $50,000 for the "Law & Order" television star, a feat he says he is "close" to achieving. Why Thompson? Because he was the only presidential candidate to call and ask for his vote, the younger Bush said.

With no certain Republican front-runner and the most open-ended nominating process in decades, it is perhaps no surprise that the party's first family is just as divided in settling on a candidate. While its most powerful members -- President Bush, his father and his brother Jeb -- have remained conspicuously on the sidelines, their public statements and body language carefully analyzed for evidence of whom they privately favor, other family members have spread their endorsements around.

George P. Bush's little brother, whom everyone in the family calls "Jebby," has signed on to the campaign of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani as the young professionals chairman in Florida. Their aunt Doro, the president's younger sister, co-hosted a Washington fundraiser in February for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. One of the president's brothers, Neil M. Bush, attended a Texas event for Romney.

In a brief response to an e-mail inquiry last week, Jeb Bush said: "I don't know where the other Bushes sympathies are. I know I admire all of the candidates for different reasons. My boys made their decisions on their own. I am proud of them for their involvement."

In fact, the former governor has praised all his party's major candidates. In a recent interview online, he said Giuliani has "high energy and tremendous personality," and he called Thompson a "committed conservative." He said he admires the courage of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and praised Romney's "intellectual curiosity," saying "he's incredibly smart and asks the questions necessary."

President Bush has said he will make no endorsement during the primary season. His father, former president George H.W. Bush, who is 83, has met with several of the leading GOP candidates but has made it clear to close associates that he has little desire to jump into the fray in 2008.

The lack of political action represents only the second time since the 1970s that the Bush dynasty has not been actively involved in a presidential election.

To be sure, the campaigns of Republican candidates are filled with former staffers and advisers from the Bush world. But the family members are not focused on electing one of their own, as they were in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2004.

"They don't feel entitled to push or pull the party in any direction," said Jim McGrath, who was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and served as his post-White House chief of staff in Texas for many years. "They are quite content to let the political marketplace sort itself out."

Discovering the 2008 presidential preferences of some Bush family members is as simple as looking up their campaign contributions or asking them directly.

Jonathan Bush Jr., the president's first cousin, gave $2,300 to Romney. Doro Bush has given $2,100 to Romney. John Prescott Ellis, a former NBC journalist and a nephew of President Bush's father, said his wife wrote a check to Giuliani's campaign, though the contribution is not listed in Federal Election Commission records.

"When Susan said to me, 'We're going to write a check for Rudy,' I thought, 'Fine,' " said Ellis, a partner in a venture capital firm.

Jeb Bush Jr., 23, announced his support for Giuliani in a news release last month. "I know that Rudy has the leadership qualities and unmatched experience to be the next President of the United States," he said in the statement.

The younger Jeb Bush said he did not ask his father or his older brother for advice or permission before contacting the Giuliani campaign to volunteer. He will be hosting conference calls and holding other events for young people.

"The way he helped get us though 9/11 really sold me," he said in a brief interview.

While the elder Jeb Bush has professed neutrality, it does not seem a coincidence that almost all of his closest political advisers have signed on to Romney's campaign.

They include Sally Bradshaw, who served as Bush's chief of staff in Florida; Ann Herberger, his longtime finance director; and Toni Jennings, who was his lieutenant governor. All three have said Bush urged them to talk with Romney before signing on with another presidential campaign -- a sign, perhaps, of his true feelings.

"Governor Bush said, 'I really think you should meet and sit and talk to this guy. He's something,' " Jennings said, recalling the conversation she had with her former boss in late 2006. "I asked him if he liked him. He said, 'Yes, I'm very impressed with him.' "

Jennings said the two men bonded as governors with similar backgrounds -- both began careers in business and later turned to state politics. Both come from political families: Romney's father, George, was governor of Michigan and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968.

George H.W. Bush, now retired and living in Houston, has met privately with several leading GOP candidates at his presidential library. Ron Kaufman, a longtime adviser of the former president, predicted that "once we have a nominee, I think he'll do whatever he can do to make sure that person is president."

Kaufman is a Romney supporter, giving credence to speculation that the elder Bush is secretly a Romney fan. In addition, the 41st president was close to Romney's father, a political contemporary who helped Bush found the Points of Light Foundation while he was president.

In 1995, when George Romney died, Bush called him "a dear friend, a dedicated family man, and a first-class public servant." In 2002, Bush headlined a fundraiser at Maine's Cape Arundel Golf Club for Mitt Romney, who was running for governor of Massachusetts.

Others from the elder Bush's orbit have gone in other directions. His second secretary of state, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, and his first secretary of commerce, Robert Mosbacher Jr., have endorsed McCain. Colin L. Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the 41st president and later became the 43rd president's secretary of state, has contributed $2,300 to McCain.

Speculation about the former president's preference for Romney was challenged last month, when he appeared in a video on McCain's behalf during the senator's "No Surrender" tour to discuss the war in Iraq. But Jean Becker, the former president's spokeswoman, quickly doused any notion of an endorsement, saying the video was "intended to support the troops and not intended as an endorsement for Senator McCain."

The current president, meanwhile, has repeatedly vowed that he will not play the role of "prognosticator in chief" and will not endorse any Republican before the GOP primary season is over.

His staff, however, is hindered by no such obligation. President Bush's former longtime political adviser, Dan Bartlett, offered frank assessments of the GOP field during a speech last month, calling Thompson a "dud," saying Romney's Mormon religion is "a real problem" and opining that the last name of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee makes him sound like a hick.

Several of Bush's key political advisers have picked sides. Terry Nelson, political director of the president's 2004 reelection campaign, managed McCain's campaign this year until a falling-out with other senior aides. Former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, who was on Bush's short list to be attorney general, is a top adviser to Giuliani.

The president hinted earlier this year that he was surprised by Giuliani's performance, given his liberal views on some issues. In an off-the-record luncheon with television anchors, he also warned them not to write off McCain, who almost derailed Bush's presidential ambitions in 2000.

Family members say that despite their immersion in politics, they are as likely to talk about University of Texas football as politics when they get together. Still, the Bushes who have gone public about their support for a candidate have not given up the idea that they might convince their more famous relatives.

"I'm starting to work on him," Jeb Jr. said about his father. "I don't know about any success. We'll see how Thanksgiving turns out."