Latest / BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback / Episode 456 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There (Part 37) The Bush Years 1989 to 1992 (B) The Tower Nomination (2) The Fight!!

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Episode 456 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There (Part 37) The Bush Years 1989 to 1992 (B) The Tower Nomination (2) The Fight!! · BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

• 0:25
  Let me ask you a couple of things.
• 0:26
  Well about the whole notion of the status family, and I know it's frayed in some ways, but I wonder to what degree it still exists.
• 0:33
  And for example, when you lose a you know when John Chaffee dies, for example.
• 0:41
  Or in a different context, when tower uh when his nomination was shot down.
• 0:48
  How does that affect?
• 0:51
  Well, um you know, there is a family, uh at least there was at that point in time.
• 1:00
  And I think they are sensitive to the unique situation they all face in terms of the time they spend doing what they're doing as compared to spending time with their families, um, that they see the strengths and weaknesses of of each other in very difficult circumstances.
• 1:18
  Um and I do think they tend to gather around, you know, when when they uh go through transitions and they feel lost when they lose one of their colleagues.
• 1:29
  You know, some of them have been there longer than others, they they have you know closer relationships.
• 1:34
  Um but I'm sure there are those who just view the loss of Pete D'Vinici in terms of his transition and his illness as a great tragedy.
• 1:46
  Um certainly the loss of Pat Moynihan, the loss of John Chafee.
• 1:50
  Um, I think they felt very personally.
• 1:52
  You know, these are people who they'd known for years and had relationships with.
• 1:57
  Did he think Talegunner floor deal or how did he actually feel this?
• 2:02
  Um That's an interesting question.
• 2:04
  Um because it's also tied up inevitably with, you know, it's always just his first test of butches gap to be, you know.
• 2:14
  You know, I think he he did in some respects.
• 2:16
  I mean, I think each of these end up being a unique set of circumstances, and the dynamics around these confirmations uh it become very strange.
• 2:26
  Uh I mean Tower was a challenging character and and a tough person to like.
• 2:32
  And so perhaps a little less sympathy on the part of many.
• 2:36
  Um Didsi was viewed, as I understand it, by many as being arrogant and autocratic.
• 2:42
  And um so, you know, was that viewed as, you know, as difficult a loss as perhaps someone else.
• 2:50
  I think he was also viewed as having to care deeply about and knowledgeable about um uh you know sort of defense policy issues and in the armed services.
• 3:00
  Um, and so you know, I think they approach each of these differently.
• 3:05
  Yeah, they're also very practical.
• 3:07
  I mean, you know, they're also in each case, um it's you know, they they all sense their own weaknesses and challenges.
• 3:16
  And uh, you know, you think they have it for the grace of God.
• 3:19
  Well it's good to say, I mean, there were those who said it wasn't a whatever thought about power, that there was more but a little state of hypocrisy.
• 3:27
  Yeah, exactly.
• 3:28
  That's exactly right.
• 3:30
  And um, you know, I'm sure Dole would say that there were others perhaps who also had personal lives and foibles that were never held accountable.
• 3:43
  Uh and so there is a certain amount of that, you know, why him is compared to somebody else.
• 3:47
  Um but they faced each of these things.
• 4:18
  This is the CBS Evening News.
• 4:20
  Dan Rather reported.
• 4:22
  Good evening.
• 4:23
  The Tower nomination in trouble.
• 4:25
  President Bush says he still supports John Tower for Defense Secretary.
• 4:29
  The Senate Armed Services Committee now says it expects to vote next week on whether to recommend up or down Tower's confirmation to the full Senate.
• 4:37
  Still, the accusations about Tower's private life swirl.
• 4:41
  Similar accusations were made weeks ago by Tower's opponents, some of them right inside the Bush transition team.
• 4:47
  CBS News White House correspondent Leslie Stahl reports the Domp Tower campaign is intensifying.
• 4:55
  Next week, two influential publications aimed at the military establishment, the Defense News and the Army Times will call for John Tower to withdraw his name as Secretary of Defense.
• 5:07
  This is expected to put more pressure on President Bush, who is standing by his man for the Pentagon despite recurring allegations of personal misconduct.
• 5:15
  In fact, White House officials have been on Capitol Hill today, urging Senators to support him.
• 5:54
  High-ranking congressional sources say some senators are worried if Tower has a drinking problem, it could put him in a compromising position.
• 6:11
  The problem for President Bush is that he's boxed in.
• 6:14
  If he were to jettison Tower now, it would make him look weak.
• 6:18
  George Bush cannot afford to cave in on this.
• 6:20
  Uh at this stage in his presidency, early weeks, to cave in would send a signal of weakness, and it would gravely damage him.
• 6:29
  But the big problem is that the allegations keep coming.
• 6:32
  Administration sources say the FBI is now widening the investigation to include questioning of this woman, a former member of Towers' arms control team in Geneva, who told CBS News last night of a specific case of Towers womanizing.
• 6:46
  If any of the new charges prove damaging, and White House officials believe that so far none have been, the feeling here is that the President does have one out.
• 6:55
  He can always blame the FBI for a sloppy investigation.
• 6:59
  Leslie Stall, CBS News, the White House.
• 7:03
  What is the rule about former senators?
• 7:10
  Yeah, well, I always thought towers held to a little higher standard, maybe I shouldn't say higher, but f it's only five foot two or whatever.
• 7:19
  But uh because he's accused of being a drunk and was there a certain amount of hypocrisy?
• 7:28
  I thought there was quite a bit.
• 7:30
  In fact, I wanted to bring the lighthouse wouldn't let me.
• 7:33
  I wanted what you have a right to do is bring power into the Senate and let him speak for the defense.
• 7:42
  But they thought that would they want to do that.
• 7:45
  I thought they would still salvage Tower's nomination.
• 7:49
  And the person who really probably uh sealed his doom is uh really one of his friends, Tam Nunn.
• 7:57
  He's a good good person, good, good senator.
• 8:01
  And he just didn't think you know for whatever reason.
• 8:05
  I think that probably the one where there was more uh vitriol than on any other was uh it was the very nature of it, was probably the tower nomination because it uh didn't start off being partisan.
• 8:18
  Senator Warren and I worked together as uh uh chairman and ranking member of the committee.
• 8:23
  This was after uh President Herbert Walker Bush got uh elected in 19 that would have been 1988.
• 8:31
  Uh and we worked together, we had all sorts of FBI reports that went into a lot of uh allegations that uh related to Senator Tower, particularly the the drinking allegation.
• 8:42
  Uh and so it started off um uh uh by uh uh bipartisan, and uh most of the whole course of it was bipartisan.
• 8:53
  This is the CBS Evening News.
• 8:55
  Dan Radder reported.
• 8:56
  Good evening.
• 8:57
  John Tower is in his desperate fight to the finish for his nomination and reputation.
• 9:02
  CBS News has been told tonight that Tower's name has now come up in the still unfolding investigation of defense contractor fraud inside and outside the Pentagon.
• 9:14
  Accusations.
• 9:15
  Nothing more than that.
• 9:16
  A meeting this evening between Tower and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn.
• 9:21
  It came just hours after Nunn indicated that he is now inclined to vote no on Tower, at least for the present time.
• 9:28
  The committee has again put off voting on whether to recommend Tower's confirmation as Defense Secretary to the full Senate.
• 9:34
  President Bush said today Tower is a victim of, quote, frenzied speculation.
• 9:38
  Accusations against Tower started weeks ago, some coming from right-wing opponents, some from Tower opponents inside the Bush transition team.
• 9:47
  Bob Sheeper begins our coverage of the long ordeal of John Tower for Defense.
• 10:02
  That still holds.
• 10:03
  I have serious concern.
• 10:04
  I also stated I had not made a final decision.
• 10:07
  Earlier, Nunn revealed what he told the White House yesterday.
• 10:11
  I told the President frankly that I have serious concerns, and I also stated that if a vote was held immediately, as some have urged, I would vote no because of these concerns.
• 10:23
  Until yesterday, the White House was pushing for an immediate Senate vote on Tower's confirmation, but that changed abruptly when the White House learned of the new allegations last night.
• 10:32
  I received a call from Senator Warner last night.
• 10:35
  I was at home, I'd say seven eight o'clock, saying that a recent allegation had surfaced enabled to put it off.
• 10:42
  That means it will be at least two weeks before it can be brought to a vote since the Senate is in recess next week.
• 10:48
  There seems general agreement that if the investigation drags on much longer, it could impair Towers' effectiveness, even if he is confirmed.
• 10:55
  And it's already strained relations between the White House and Congress.
• 10:59
  For example, senators said today they'd no longer depend on White House lawyers to notify the FBI of allegations about Towers.
• 11:07
  We uh decided that we did not need the White House as an intervening interpreter of either asking the questions or giving us their impression of the FBI report that follows.
• 11:19
  The reason CBS News has learned is that in some cases, White House staffers allowed Tower himself to see the allegations before the FBI checked them out.
• 11:28
  Nunn's message today was a simple one.
• 11:30
  The Tower nomination is no longer being taken for granted.
• 11:34
  If the allegations are not cleared up, then uh we have serious problems, and it'd be my guess he will not be confirmed.
• 11:40
  Senator Nunn and Senator Warner are meeting now with John Tower.
• 11:44
  What's going on in that meeting, we can't say, but the meeting with the White House counsel that the two senators had went on for more than two hours, and Senator Nunn says that the FBI investigation that was supposed to have been completed yesterday still is incomplete.
• 11:58
  We have what looks like, Dan, uh a nomination that is becoming more and more remote.
• 12:03
  Thanks, Bob.
• 12:04
  CBS News White House correspondent Leslie Stahl now has the latest on the siege of Tower from the Bush command headquarters.
• 12:13
  There's little doubt that John Tower's nomination is in trouble.
• 12:16
  Yet today, President Bush put his own reputation on the line with an emotional defense, saying Tower is the victim of unfair, frenzied speculation.
• 12:25
  And I have seen nothing, not one substantive fact that makes me change my mind about John Tower's ability to be Secretary of Defense and be a very good one.
• 12:37
  Even White House officials say Tower's situation is death by a thousand cuts every day.
• 12:42
  Another allegation, another delay.
• 12:44
  But Mr.
• 12:45
  Bush claims that every charge has been, quote, shot down in flames.
• 12:49
  And he expressed frustration, if not veiled anger at Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn for stating publicly that for now he is against the Tower nomination.
• 12:59
  If you've made up your mind, let the process go forward.
• 13:03
  Let's have the vote.
• 13:25
  He came to the White House this morning for a high-level meeting on the defense budget and spent the day working in his Pentagon office.
• 13:32
  But some of the President's own advisors say the Tower situation is being poorly managed at the White House, and they blame Chief of Staff John Sununos.
• 13:40
  They say it was a mistake to let the President speak out publicly today, especially when Tower's survivability is in such doubt.
• 13:56
  President Bush unfortunately now seems to be in the line of fire.
• 14:40
  According to the sources, the allegations involve possible illegal acceptance of money by Tower staffers, although not High Tower himself when he was in the Senate.
• 14:49
  Forces say that the situation has developed in recent days as the result of what are being called very delicate clean negotiations with targets of the ill-wind investigation.
• 14:59
  President Bush has indicated that the new information involved a subject which has surfaced in the past and has since resurfaced.
• 15:06
  In fact, Justice Department officials acknowledge that FBI Wiretat and some of the targets of the Ill-Wind investigation did include government contractors writing about their access to John Tower.
• 15:18
  But so far there has been no proof that the remarks were anything more than mere posturing.
• 15:23
  One force tonight stressed that there is no personal or clear nexus between Tower himself and Illwind.
• 15:30
  But the possibility of staff involvement has clearly distressed the White House, the Justice Department, and the Central Services Committee, Dan.
• 15:42
  What is the likelihood that they can be stretched to involve John Tower directly in himself?
• 15:47
  I think that's the key question here.
• 15:48
  I think that's the reason why everyone is going so slowly.
• 15:52
  There is great uncertainty.
• 15:53
  And in fact, that long delay that Leslie just talked about in the FBI investigation really is the result of nobody wanting to make any rash decisions while there is so much out there.
• 16:05
  Bob Shever up on Capitol Hill, these concerns are not confined to the Democrats, and they are not purely partisan.
• 16:11
  Is that correct or incorrect?
• 16:13
  No, I think that's correct.
• 16:14
  The uh the Republicans are standing fast in public, Dan, but privately you're seeing some questions even among them tonight.
• 16:21
  And I thought it was very interesting when uh John Warner, the ranking Republican on this committee, came out of the committee tonight.
• 16:27
  Yesterday he had said that uh he saw nothing in the allegations that would prevent Tower from being confirmed.
• 16:32
  Tonight he said he'd just rather not comment.
• 16:35
  Bob Schiefer, Rita Braver, thank you very much.
• 16:42
  This is the CBS Evening News.
• 16:44
  Bob Schiefer sitting in tonight for Dan Rather.
• 16:46
  Good evening.
• 16:47
  What could be a new problem for John Tower's nomination to be Secretary of Defense surfaced today?
• 16:52
  It concerns new questions about Tower's personal behavior during the time he was conducting arms negotiations for the United States in Geneva, and it turned up apparently during an investigation into other matters that was being conducted by the government's Office of Personnel Management.
• 17:07
  David Martin reports.
• 17:10
  The latest allegation to surface about John Tower's personal life appears in the report of an official investigation into suspected security violations at the American Delegation to Arms Control Talks in Geneva.
• 17:22
  The report quotes the chief security officer for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency as saying Tower maintained secretaries in Geneva as mistresses during the time he was chief negotiator for talks to reduce long-range nuclear weapons.
• 17:35
  A spokesman for Tower denied the allegation, saying it's just not true.
• 17:39
  Sources said the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is considering Tower's nomination to be Secretary of Defense, has already investigated the allegation and been unable to confirm it.
• 17:49
  But the ranking Republican on the committee said it is still under investigation and gave no hint of what has been found.
• 17:55
  In fairness, the Senator Tower and all others involved in this.
• 17:59
  Until the evidence is in, I have no comments.
• 18:03
  Still, a House committee chaired by Congressman John Dingle seems likely to continue the investigation into Tower's conduct in Geneva, no matter what the Senate does.
• 18:12
  Just two days ago, Ken Edelman, former head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, wrote a newspaper column praising Tower as a negotiator, but saying his lack of discretion proved troublesome.
• 18:23
  It did raise questions about his overall judgment and probity.
• 18:26
  What I said in the column was that uh this kind of behavior was known at the time, was known since, and has been investigated thoroughly.
• 18:35
  The allegation that Tower kept secretaries as mistresses could undermine his ability to leave the armed services.
• 18:42
  If a man or woman in uniform had an affair with a subordinate, it could lead to a court martial.
• 18:47
  Well, David, the latest FBI report is due out early next week.
• 18:51
  Any sense of what's in it?
• 18:53
  Well, we're told that there are no smoking guns in there, but it's not at all clear that this report is going to dispel this cloud of rumor that surrounds Tower's personal life.
• 19:04
  White House said again today, of course, that it still stands by Tower, but my sense of it, even though nobody on the committee is willing to say so for the record yet, my sense of it is that the Republicans on the Armed Services Committee would be very relieved if Tower's name were withdrawn.
• 19:18
  What uh what sense do you get at the Pentagon?
• 19:21
  Well, the officials I talk to here, I think, would be equally relieved if the uh nomination were withdrawn.
• 19:27
  It's not necessarily because they think Tower is unfit for the job, it's just because he's gotten off to such a bad start, they wonder how effective he can be, particularly when it comes to dealing with Congress.
• 19:38
  Thank you, David.
• 19:40
  Conservative activist Paul Weyrick, and over the course of many years I have encountered the uh nominee in a uh condition uh lack of sobriety, uh, as well as uh with women who uh uh to whom he was not married.
• 20:00
  I d I recognize both of the uh senators' wives because as you know I worked here in the Senate for eleven years, and uh uh you know I encountered it frequently enough to the point where it made an impression.
• 20:15
  As I say, I don't go looking for this sort of thing.
• 20:18
  Uh I didn't obviously make uh any records of the uh of the uh times and places, uh, but I did encounter this on a number of occasions.
• 20:28
  Was there ever a time during that period when when Dole shared with you that he also had some misgivings or did he just look straight ahead?
• 20:36
  I always thought Bob saw what the problem was, and I always thought that probably behind the scenes, though I never knew it, it probably were some people like Bob, maybe him, counseling uh President Bush to find another job for Santa Tower.
• 20:52
  Uh Tower was a person of integrity, he was a he was an effective leader in many respects.
• 20:57
  I personally never knew he had a serious drinking problem until this whole series of FBI reports where there were hundreds of people interviewed.
• 21:06
  Um but putting him in the position of leader of several million uh young men and women, uh with alcohol and drugs being a huge problem in the military, uh was simply to me, in my view, not the not the right job and whatnot acceptable job.
• 21:22
  If he had been in some other position, uh I would have gone along with it.
• 21:26
  And uh both Center Warren and I tried to persuade Pres then President Walker Bush of that.
• 21:31
  Uh he obviously did not in the final analysis agree, though he probably thought about it.
• 21:36
  My guess is behind the scenes that there probably were some conversations that maybe your historical research will reveal where Bob Doe might have had the same advice, but that's simply speculation on my part.
• 21:46
  Bob and I never had that direct discussion, although we did talk and he did listen about the various uh problems.
• 21:53
  I remember one term he came up with, which was uh again uh with Bob and his humor.
• 21:58
  I took it uh uh with a great deal of uh as as a as a witty remark.
• 22:03
  It didn't bother me.
• 22:04
  But it was a pretty pretty effective.
• 22:05
  He kept Bob was trying to rally all the Republicans, and so the way to rally the Republicans was to say that all the Democrats were being partisan.
• 22:14
  And there were actually some Republicans, several, who had great apprehensions about such a title.
• 22:20
  But Bob came up with the term nonpartisan, and uh he used that term on the Over and over and over again.
• 22:26
  And uh it um it it was it was pretty pretty well done, pretty effective, because he got most of the Republicans to vote with Senator Tower, and a number of them told me privately they thought um uh that my position was the right position.
• 22:41
  But you know, to measure what kind of a guy I was when the tower uh memorial service, I always stab none run on the front row.
• 22:52
  So what was Dunn's objective?
• 22:55
  It was it was genuine or wasn't genuine.
• 22:57
  No, I don't stab none, I think, you know, and every case I can call it this pretty straightforward guy.
• 23:05
  But I think he probably had some concerns about you know, if you were had a problem with or even a perceived problem with alcohol, maybe uh Secretary of Defense makes some pretty important decisions, and you want him to be pretty clear-headed at the time.
• 23:25
  But I know of at least one senator who had had the problem himself, who was condemning towers.
• 23:32
  So I've you find a few of those around.
• 23:38
  This is the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather reporting.
• 23:41
  Good evening.
• 23:42
  There is growing talk at the White House and in Congress tonight that the John Tower nomination is either dead or so close that no one can tell.
• 23:50
  President Bush is holding yet another strategy session at the White House tonight with Senate Republican leaders.
• 23:56
  John Tower will be there.
• 23:57
  Towers under increasing pressure to pull out.
• 23:59
  All of this follows new setbacks in President Bush's determined efforts to get the Tower nomination through at whatever cost, and in the process, spare himself an embarrassing defeat in an up or down vote by the full Senate.
• 24:11
  CBS News White House correspondent Leslie Stahl begins our coverage on the run-up to the final showdown on John Tower.
• 24:19
  Earlier White House boasts that we've got the votes turned to private admissions today, that the Tower nomination is all but a lost cause.
• 24:27
  But still, Mr.
• 24:28
  Bush put on another of his almost daily public displays of support.
• 24:32
  This one, a cabinet meeting with Tower at his side.
• 24:41
  One of them has to do with who best to run the Pentagon.
• 24:45
  And I haven't heard one single voice challenge this man's knowledge.
• 24:52
  Have you picked up any democratic citizens?
• 24:55
  Who knows?
• 24:57
  Stay two.
• 24:57
  Thank you, folks.
• 24:58
  White House officials insist that no replacement is being discussed.
• 25:02
  In a desperate uphill effort, the president lobbied a dozen senators, all of them Democrats, in a series of one-on-one meetings.
• 25:09
  Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady was sent on his own arm-twisting mission to Capitol Hill.
• 25:14
  Vice President Quayle was put in charge of holding the Republicans.
• 25:18
  Five Democratic senators plus 45 Republicans will give us 50, and I'll make the 51st vote in favor of John Tallett.
• 25:24
  I will not consume any beverage alcohol of any type or form, including wine, beer, spirits and it appears the Tower's no-more drinking vow over the weekend failed to move any votes as White House officials who joined in mapping that pledge strategy had hoped.
• 25:38
  If it's determined that Tower has any chance, the President will try to delay the vote to buy more time for lobbying.
• 25:44
  If it's clear by tomorrow that he can't win, the President will call for a quick vote.
• 26:03
  Leslie Stahl, CBS News, the White House.
• 26:06
  Chief Washington correspondent Bob Sheefer is on Capitol Hill this evening with the you from there on what appears to be the edge of doom for the tower nomination.
• 26:14
  Bob, how does it look?
• 26:16
  Dan, the growing feeling among both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate is that the Tower nomination is dead, but the Republicans intend to go down fighting, and it's turning very nasty.
• 26:26
  The Republican leader went to the floor tonight to plead for fairness.
• 26:34
  If you're already locked in concrete, you can't do much about that.
• 26:38
  But we can't expect people to look at the facts.
• 26:41
  As most Republicans told it, the FBI has come up with nothing to disqualify Tower as defense secretary.
• 26:48
  Not one single member of our body has seen John Tower drunk.
• 26:55
  And yet there are members of this body who've seen other members of the body drunk.
• 27:00
  But in drafting its final report, the Democratic majority on the Armed Services Committee cites four major concerns about Tower: excessive use of alcohol, questionable judgment reflected in his consulting services to major defense firms, the appearance of conflict of interest due to prior ties to defense contractors, and finally, indiscreet behavior toward women.
• 27:22
  Democrat Hollings of South Carolina, whose support the White House had hoped to win, said tonight he'll vote against Tower because of what the FBI report states about drinking problems.
• 27:32
  John Tower could not serve in the nuclear navy.
• 27:35
  In fact, at 201 filed, he can get promoted from corporal to sergeant if you looked at the record.
• 27:41
  It has gotten so personal that one Republican senator told his colleagues today that from now on, if he sees any senator on the floor drunk, he will point it out.
• 27:50
  But even those who are strongest for Tower now concede it's virtually impossible to find enough votes to confirm him.
• 27:56
  Two Republican senators, Dan, have asked the president to draw down the nomination.
• 28:01
  Thanks, Bob.
• 28:03
  Hypocrisy aside, is it a legitimate was it a legitimate concern?
• 28:07
  I mean, obviously Sam Nunn thought it was.
• 28:11
  And is it is it a rule that should be applied?
• 28:14
  Are there certain jobs where it applies and others that the way things, you know, Senator Dodd voted for Tower's nomination?
• 28:21
  Because when Senator Dodd's father was censured, Tower voted against it.
• 28:27
  So, you know, you have to go back.
• 28:29
  There's always somebody's got a motive, which may be a good motive, I'm not saying they're bad.
• 28:33
  For some reason.
• 28:35
  Ten years ago, this guy was defended me or something.
• 28:39
  And then Tower, because Tower's kind of a prickly guy.
• 28:42
  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:44
  I mean, he was not Mr.
• 28:45
  Congeniality.
• 28:46
  No.
• 28:49
  Very smart again, very bright.
• 28:52
  And uh didn't suffer a fool.
• 28:56
  Yeah, he was uh he can cut you off pretty quickly.
• 29:01
  But but he and Goldwater are great buddies, you know.
• 29:05
  Goldwater could cut you off pretty briefly, too, with his cane.
• 29:09
  But uh it was kind of a blow, you know.
• 29:17
  This is the CBS evening news, Dan Raddle reporting.
• 29:21
  Good evening.
• 29:22
  Increasing talk tonight that the no votes on John Tower may, may have it.
• 29:27
  This, even though the expected but still important Democratic swing vote of Lloyd Benson of Texas swung for Tower during the afternoon.
• 29:36
  All of this comes as Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell of Maine is calling for no more delays in an up or down Senate vote and calling Tower's defeat certain.
• 29:45
  Some Republicans in private now agree, but others in public are still talking up, turning it around for Tower.
• 29:51
  And President Bush continues pouring it on.
• 29:54
  On Capitol Hill, our Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schiefer has all the latest.
• 29:58
  Bob.
• 29:59
  Dan, the Republicans have just gone into what looks like a parliamentary stall on the Senate floor by requesting that John Tower be allowed to come there to make his own case.
• 30:08
  That request will surely be denied.
• 30:10
  And it appears that with all signs now looking toward the Tower nomination being dead.
• 30:27
  Two Republican senators told us privately they just don't have the votes to win.
• 30:31
  But earlier today, Tower did pick up the vote of his home state Democrat, Lloyd Benson.
• 30:37
  I found the allegations about John Tower's personal life without enough basis to deny a president his choice.
• 30:45
  But that vote was quickly countered by another Southern Democrat, Johnston of Louisiana.
• 30:50
  That in the nuclear age, we cannot afford to take a chance on the man who holds in his hand the future of the world.
• 31:01
  Confident he could win even without Benson, Majority Leader Mitchell had begun pushing this morning for a vote.
• 31:11
  It ought to be brought to a conclusion, and as the Constitution mandates, that conclusion is for the Senate to vote on the nomination.
• 31:20
  Freshman Democrat Lieberman of Connecticut is waiting on the Senate floor now to speak, Dan.
• 31:25
  He is expected to vote against Tower.
• 31:27
  That would be 51 votes that the Democrats could count as being against Tower.
• 31:32
  That would mean that the nomination is dead.
• 31:34
  For now, we may have a vote, they say, as early as tomorrow.
• 31:37
  Thanks, Bob.
• 31:38
  We finally poured out onto the floor of the Senate.
• 31:41
  By that time, Senator Warner had decided he was going to support the nomination during the course of all of our deliberations.
• 31:48
  He and I worked together, and so there was not partisanship during the investigative stage, but in the final analysis, we were on the opposite side.
• 31:55
  And Senator Dole felt as the leader on the Republican side, uh, he needed to really support uh the new president's uh nominee.
• 32:05
  And so that got that got pretty pretty uh tough.
• 32:09
  It was never uh I don't remember any venom between the two of us uh on the floor, but there were things said back then in the spirit of debate that uh probably got a little beyond uh the normal course of um of the Bob Dole Sam Nunn discussion.
• 32:25
  We're gonna let you listen now to the actual floor debate or or snippets of the floor debate uh from that uh argument over John Tower on March the 9th, uh which will be before they cast the vote when when Tower was rejected.
• 32:42
  And I want to say a very quick thank you to the weekly podcast, uh John Tower, 1989 uh Senate debate of the Secretary of Defense and Alcohol.
• 32:53
  That's the name of it, and we're gonna include the link on our show so you can go and listen to it.
• 32:58
  This is from C-SPAN, and uh and they did a masterful job of putting it together, and so uh I just wanted to share that with you before we air it.
• 33:07
  Um, and you'll hear the senators and a lot of big name senators uh debate this on the floor of the U.S.
• 33:13
  Senate.
• 33:14
  Senator Hollings this morning said you had made pledges to abstain from alcohol before and broken them, and we believe the latest one.
• 33:24
  I don't know what Senator Hollings is referring to, I don't recall any such, but the fact is this is not a pledge, it is an oath that I have taken.
• 33:40
  And I regard such oaths as sacred, and I can assure you I will abide by it.
• 33:52
  You said Sunday you've never broken a pledge in your life.
• 33:56
  Does this include wedding vows?
• 34:04
  As a matter of fact, I have broken wedding vows.
• 34:09
  I think I'm probably not alone in that connection.
• 34:12
  Mr.
• 34:13
  President, my mind went back again to some senators I have known here in the Senate who have been impaired.
• 34:21
  I saved one senator one day who almost fell in the in the path of a subway.
• 34:26
  He was so intoxicated.
• 34:29
  I have spent time in the steam room with senators who were intoxicated.
• 34:36
  One of my great friends from the past, who's now deceased, uh the first day I was in the Senate, was so intoxicated he had to lean on my shoulder to walk over to the other building, to the Senate office building.
• 34:49
  That was Ted Stevens, Republican senator from Alaska, March 7th, 1989.
• 34:54
  And he's already admitted some remarkable things.
• 34:57
  Uh humans don't like to do that.
• 34:59
  Said he did, you know, do some of those things in 1970 that he, you know, did that with uh a drink of scotch, that that those were things that had happened, but they weren't now.
• 35:12
  So it's so fascinating to me.
• 35:14
  I guess it's uh ever so uh as to who are these appointed scorekeepers in society now who keep track of everybody.
• 35:23
  I'm learning to handle them well.
• 35:25
  I just say to them when they ask me a question, you know, what did you do when you were twenty or twenty five or thirty?
• 35:33
  Here's Republican from Idaho, Steve Sims.
• 35:36
  We've heard all kinds of talk in this chamber, Mr.
• 35:38
  President, about the perception of whether someone drank too much whiskey or whether they did this or did that.
• 35:46
  But we have not talked very much about what's the perception of the United States of America.
• 35:51
  And Republican minority leader Bob Dole.
• 35:53
  We spent precious little time on FBI, strategic modernization, the 600 ship Navy, troop strength, alliance burden sharing, arms control.
• 36:03
  Rather, votes have been decided by tabloid versions of John Tower's personal life.
• 36:09
  Faceless people known only as the Flash T, Flash T or T-13 evolving fanciful talks of wine, women, and song.
• 36:17
  A doctor who is not a doctor, but who used as many names has hurled a non-existent Russian ballerina onto the front pages.
• 36:25
  Non existent.
• 36:26
  A sergeant with a fault, remember, conjured up a racy encounter with a female Air Force crew chief.
• 36:38
  They all made the evening news.
• 36:40
  Never saw the retraction.
• 36:42
  We heard Ted Stevens at the outset.
• 36:44
  Here's the Republican from Alaska again.
• 36:46
  When I went overseas to China, Mr.
• 36:48
  President, in World War II, we were given monthly PX supply.
• 36:57
  Our rations, so to speak.
• 37:00
  And in those rations were at least two bottles of whiskey a month.
• 37:08
  Now we have some indication that if a person drinks on occasion, he ought not to be considered to be a cabinet officer.
• 37:21
  President, when I came back from those combat missions and all my colleagues did at the time, my fellow pilots, we were entitled to two or three ounces of whiskey after every combat flight.
• 37:32
  We didn't take it, we gave it to the flight surgeons.
• 37:35
  The surgeon was smart.
• 37:36
  He said, if you all save this up, we could have a real great squadron party once in a while, and everybody can enjoy this uh whiskey we get, not just you pilots.
• 37:44
  And and we had some really wing-bang parties in China.
• 37:49
  Now let's switch to undistilled alcohol, fermented drinks like beer and wine.
• 37:54
  We start with Democrat from North Dakota, Kent Conrad.
• 37:57
  This is not a man who drinks a glass of wine too much.
• 38:03
  This is not a man who has a couple of beers too much.
• 38:08
  This is a man who the record shows when he ties one on drinks so much that he's out of control, that he can barely walk.
• 38:22
  That he is not uh in a state that would allow him to discharge the awesome responsibility of the Secretary of Defense of the United States and another Democrat from Louisiana, J.
• 38:35
  Bennett Johnston.
• 38:36
  We're told there is a double standard that we senators uh as participants, and someone said, uh coming on the floor with grape and grain on the breath.
• 38:50
  There is no doubt, Mr.
• 38:51
  President, that the use of alcohol is uh is not infrequent in this town.
• 38:59
  Republican administrations, Democratic administrations in the White House itself use alcohol.
• 39:06
  I have observed presidents who drink wine in the White House.
• 39:10
  That is no uh revelation to anyone, of course.
• 39:15
  Uh I have observed we have all observed uh wide ranges of people uh using alcohol in this town.
• 39:26
  I will say, Mr.
• 39:27
  President, that I think uh senators are as careful and controlled and responsible in their use of alcohol as any group I I've seen.
• 39:39
  If there is abuse in this body, I do not know about it, which doesn't mean it didn't exist because frankly I did not know about the abuse by Senator Tower.
• 39:47
  And from Ohio, here's Democrat John Glenn.
• 39:51
  This idea that uh because we can go to white wine, it's okay, or that we haven't seen him drunk and and not able to perform, that there is not an abuse problem which he now says he had back in the 70s.
• 40:04
  Uh I just can't excuse that.
• 40:05
  I can't say that he didn't have a problem because we didn't see it here on the Senate floor.
• 40:10
  Drinking problems take a multitude of forms, hundreds of different forms.
• 40:16
  Uh they're not all the types that we would have noticed here on the floor.
• 40:21
  I didn't know Betty Ford had a problem, didn't know Kitty Dukakis had a problem at all.
• 40:25
  And now I'm not around them every day, obviously.
• 40:28
  So I and but I as I understand it, most people around them were not aware of it either.
• 40:33
  And yet they finally knew that it was getting a a a grip on their lives, and they went and did something about it to their everlasting credit.
• 40:40
  Senator Glenn also provided alcohol measurements.
• 40:43
  Henry Furred on the Brinkley program last Sunday, program I was on at a different time period, said that twelve years ago he gave up scotch.
• 40:53
  But said he still drinks wine, stuck with wine since that time, with an occasional martini, and with vodka sometimes with salmon and caviar.
• 41:03
  Now, this has been through all of these references, both before the committee and publicly.
• 41:09
  The nominee has talked about drinking wine now as though that's diet-right soda pop.
• 41:17
  As though there's no problem and it can be proven because he only drinks wine.
• 41:21
  Well, I would submit that uh that doesn't prove very much to me because if you look at the the problem, it's alcohol.
• 41:28
  It's not whether it comes in wine or whether it comes in bourbon or whether it comes in scotch.
• 41:33
  The problem is alcohol.
• 41:36
  And the facts are that a one and a half ounce, a one and a half ounce standard shot of 80-proof whiskey is equaled in alcoholic content by a 12-ounce beer, four and a half percent beer.
• 41:48
  It's equaled by the usual four and a half ounce glass of wine at 12%.
• 41:53
  Here's another grouping of clips from the debate over John Towers drinking.
• 41:57
  Senators who dragged into the discussion a legendary British statesman, Winston Churchill.
• 42:02
  Here again, Ted Stevens.
• 42:05
  Suppose, for instance, that a witness had come in and said this in the morning, remaining on his breakfast table is three ounces of scotch with soda, always Johnny Walker red, which he sips occasionally over the next four hours in the tradition of his predecessor.
• 42:30
  The legend that he was a drinker, a heavy drinker is quite untrue.
• 42:35
  He's sensible if unorthodox as a drinker.
• 42:41
  I'm not reading completely, I'm sort of paraphrasing something here.
• 42:44
  I'll tell you what it is.
• 42:45
  I think you would know already.
• 42:47
  There's always alcohol in his bloodstream.
• 42:50
  It reaches its peak in the evening after he's had two or three scotches, several glasses of champagne, at least two brandies, and a highball.
• 43:00
  And they don't even count his white wine at lunch and his favorite claret at dinner.
• 43:08
  His family has never seen him the worship of a drink.
• 43:13
  And he remarks, he remarks, we all despise a man who gets drunk.
• 43:18
  After an exchange of views on drinking, you can say, All I can say is that I've taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
• 43:28
  You know who it is.
• 43:30
  Winston Churchill.
• 43:32
  At that point, Senator Stevens held up a copy of William Manchester's famous book on Winston Churchill, The Last Lion.
• 43:38
  Apparently, Senator Johnston of Louisiana happened to be reading the same book.
• 43:43
  Now, Mr.
• 43:43
  President, uh, many people can drink alcohol, and we've heard it described or about Churchill, and I've just finished reading three books on Winston Churchill, and uh I know that he would get up in the morning and start with a Johnny Walker red, and he would have uh wine and sometimes champagne with lunch, and maybe a brandy after lunch and after his nap.
• 44:06
  He would have a great dinner party, and he would go through the whole thing, and he'd finish it off with brandy, and about 11 o'clock, he'd start dictating and dictate till maybe three in the morning.
• 44:17
  And be in with with such perfect clarity of mind that it is.
• 44:22
  I must say, Mr.
• 44:23
  President, uh many of Many admire many qualities about Churchill, that included.
• 44:29
  Another Churchill citation from Utah Republican Orrin Hatch.
• 44:33
  One wonders what the committee majority would do if confronted with the Winston Churchill, who took great pride in his alcoholic consumption and was known to start each day with a scotch and soda.
• 44:44
  We can only assume that he too would fall victim to the committee majority's quest for moral perfection.
• 44:51
  And here's Texas Republican Phil Graham.
• 44:54
  Finally, Mr.
• 44:55
  President, the whiskey accusation, which I've touched on here.
• 45:00
  And again, I'm not going to go into great detail about it because the plain truth is that whiskey is not an unknown commodity to the people of America and to the people who have been important in its government.
• 45:15
  And I want case my mama's watching, I want to make it clear that the world would be better off if God had never allowed whiskey to be created.
• 45:23
  But that is not the issue here.
• 45:26
  The issue here is about John Tower, and the issue here is about alcohol.
• 45:31
  I don't need to run down the list of people that by this new standard would never be present in the chain of command.
• 45:40
  Ulysses S.
• 45:41
  Grant, who won the War of Northern Aggression, would have clearly been rejected by this body.
• 45:48
  And I'm not going to repeat the story about uh Lincoln.
• 45:52
  We've all heard it, we know it, but obviously we have forgotten it.
• 45:57
  Winston Churchill, who was a voice of the free world, who stood alone against Nazi aggression, consume more liquor on an average basis than anyone has ever accused John Tower of consuming.
• 46:11
  Was he unfit?
• 46:14
  Asked Hitler's ghost.
• 46:16
  By the way, a footnote to that clip, you heard Senator Graham refer to the War of Northern Aggression.
• 46:22
  The official congressional record of his remarks changed it to him saying Civil War.
• 46:27
  Slade Gordon, Republican of Washington, followed Phil Graham's remarks with more mentions of the Civil War and whiskey.
• 46:34
  I must refer to two incidents in only a slightly different manner, which my distinguished colleague from Texas did uh earlier.
• 46:45
  We are very fortunate that we are not making judgments about uh uh the appropriate character for a commander of the armies of the United States during the course of the Civil War.
• 46:58
  That uh famous story, which almost everyone in this body knows uh about uh Lincoln and the ministers who asked for General Grant to be fired because he drank whiskey is still appropriate in this circumstance.
• 47:15
  President Lincoln is reported to have asked uh the ministers to find what brand of whiskey it was that General Grant was consuming so that he could provide a case of it to each of his other generals.
• 47:29
  Also making appearances during the Senate floor debate over John Tower, some legendary DC hotels, restaurants, and watering holes, like the Monocle.
• 47:38
  Here's Republican from Maine and future Defense Secretary William Cohen.
• 47:42
  Now, last night, following the deliberations, the debate, Senator Rubman and I went down to the uh the Monocle restaurant, I must say, with great uh trepidation.
• 47:53
  And uh that restaurant has achieved, nearly achieved the prominence of the the Watergate Hotel.
• 47:58
  Business appeared to be up last night.
• 48:01
  Maybe they were hoping to uh see what activity might take place down at that restaurant.
• 48:05
  There was a a table of about a dozen men and, as I recall, one woman.
• 48:12
  Their voices were loud, there was a great deal of laughter, some of it boisterous, cocktails were being served, they were having a good time.
• 48:21
  And Mr.
• 48:21
  President, they were also quite sober.
• 48:25
  I might point out that they happened to be, coincidentally, from Maine and New Hampshire, unbeknownst to Senator Rudman and myself at the time.
• 48:32
  But I thought about the situation.
• 48:34
  I thought suppose someone is in that restaurant, is offended by loud laughter or a group of people enjoying cocktails before their meal.
• 48:45
  They could say that in their judgment that these people were under the influence of alcohol or engaging in conduct that was unbecoming.
• 48:54
  And what if a member of the United States Senate happened to be sitting at the table at that time?
• 48:59
  Could the same charge not be made?
• 49:01
  I thought about my own appearance.
• 49:03
  I thought about my own appearance.
• 49:06
  I had three drinks in less than 15 minutes of ice water, three glasses of ice water.
• 49:13
  And the thought occurred to me, the thought occurred to me, suppose someone sitting at a distant table watched me swallow three glasses of water and they concluded that it may have been gin or vodka instead of Perrier or Poland water, preferably, and some haloed soul who was sitting over in that table, a distant table, who only enters the monocle to eat and observe other people, came to that conclusion.
• 49:44
  And a long-gone classy restaurant which used to be in the same building as C-SPAN, La Colleen, during this debate between Bob Dole and Presiding Officer Bob Carey, Democrat of Nebraska, over the FBI's background report on John Tower.
• 49:57
  Can names be cited from the report?
• 49:59
  In the opinion of the chair, no.
• 50:01
  Can references identifying persons by other characterizations than by names be used, such as profession, qualifications as a witness, date of interview, date of the alleged occurrence?
• 50:19
  In the opinion of the chair, no.
• 50:21
  In the opinion of the chair, in addition, that uh Senator to the extent that a senator could demonstrate that that information had already been in the public or was in the public arena, uh, an exception could be made.
• 50:36
  Can places be referred to such as areas of this country or cities or specific places like La Colline restaurant.
• 50:47
  Also showing up, the Jefferson Hotel.
• 50:50
  Here's Malcolm Wallop, Republican of Wyoming.
• 50:53
  One has got to call a talk show in the middle of the night, and hint and the hint of femme propriety has tainted the candidate for the president of the United States for appointment of the high officer.
• 51:07
  One has merely to go down and whisper in the FBI's ear.
• 51:13
  And the hint has been laid down as a standard.
• 51:18
  Let me talk about those three most famous cases.
• 51:21
  Mr.
• 51:21
  DeBurch, cited by the post as an independent businessman with no ax to grind, is a Democratic poster and campaign consultant.
• 51:31
  Professionally, never worked for the other side.
• 51:35
  These three marvelous trips to Washington, in which he cites John Tower's drunkenness and disorderliness in the Jefferson Hotel, all took place at a moment in time when John Tower was one out of the country, one in Houston or Dallas, Texas, and one in Washington state.
• 51:53
  Senator Wallop cited a Washington Post story.
• 51:55
  So too did Arizona Republican John McCain.
• 52:21
  And uh we have now received information that this individual's last duty reported to Bergstrom Air Force Base on 21 February 1976.
• 52:31
  His last duty day was 16 March 77.
• 52:34
  He was referred to the Wilford Hall Medical Center uh for psychological evaluation, was later retired for psychiatric disability, and uh his uh the details of that are can be made available.
• 52:50
  He was permanently retired on 19 April 1978 for psychiatric condition.
• 52:58
  And I think it's best also would like to point out that the 12th Air Force commander from June 75 through June 78 recalls John Tower to have been in Bergstrom only once during this period.
• 53:09
  That was the first Saturday in August 1975 for an air show.
• 53:13
  That memory has been confirmed by the wing commander, the vice wing commander, and the master chief of the Air Force.
• 53:19
  And Mr.
• 53:20
  President, the reason why I bring this very important information to the attention of this body is that this allegation was obviously given great credibility by the media by being printed on the front page of the Washington Post.
• 53:33
  I think it clearly indicates that there's not validity to that, and there's very little that we can do to repair the damage that is done by this allegation, and I understand was going to be carried on national media tonight.
• 53:44
  And not just going after the media, senators also pointed fingers at each other and other politicians.
• 53:50
  Here again, Democrat John Glenn of Ohio engaging with Republican Jake Garn of Utah.
• 53:56
  We can talk about senators who don't have the nuclear button.
• 54:01
  Well, neither does the Secretary of Defense.
• 54:03
  Only the President has that nuclear button.
• 54:06
  And we could get into, which I don't intend to, with my good friend fellow astronaut from Ohio, to that kind of discussion.
• 54:15
  But we could talk about some presidents who had some problems while they were in the Oval Office that uh had the did have the red button there for them.
• 54:24
  No, but I'm sure this.
• 54:25
  I think we're applying a double unfair standard to a well-qualified individual.
• 54:31
  And some of us happen to believe in the principle of repentance in any event.
• 54:35
  If the Senate will yield, the point I made in my remarks, and I'm sure he wasn't out here for my very lengthy remarks, but the point I made there, a couple of points, was that the Department of Defense is different.
• 54:44
  It's different than being on the floor of the Senate.
• 54:46
  There is a double standard.
• 54:47
  We're held to accounting.
• 54:48
  Uh, our confirmation process comes from the people back home at election time.
• 54:53
  It doesn't come from a confirmation process right here.
• 54:55
  Number two.
• 54:56
  Number two.
• 54:57
  Yes, you heard correctly.
• 54:58
  Senator Garn did say the public elects a lot of drunks to public office.
• 55:03
  And we learned from California Republican Pete Wilson that senators enjoy cocktails in the afternoon before votes.
• 55:11
  If what he meant was simply that he has come to this floor and seen Senator Tower participate in the work of this body after he has had a glass of wine, why I am prepared to accept that because it's true of about 85 percent of his colleagues.
• 55:32
  There are some teetotalers among us.
• 55:37
  But how many times, my friends, have we witnessed the return to this floor of a whole gaggle of senators coming back in black tie from one of those innumerable black tie dinners that are endemic to this city, where they've been in one good cause or another, almost on every occasion having had a glass of wine with dinner, perhaps two, perhaps a cocktail before.
• 56:11
  And do those senators not return?
• 56:14
  Do they refrain from voting on those occasions?
• 56:17
  And indeed should they?
• 56:19
  It's a proper question.
• 56:24
  Now you may say that is not dealing with an international security crisis at 2 o'clock in the morning.
• 56:33
  Well, no, it's not.
• 56:36
  But I assume that every member of this body takes very seriously the vote he casts on any substantive matter, and I will tell you that some of the most serious votes we've cast, some of the most important, have been cast late at night or early in the morning.
• 56:57
  And I've never seen a senator disqualify himself, nor another senator seek to disqualify a colleague because he's been here with a glass of wine, not on the floor, but having had one off the floor.
• 57:11
  It happens virtually every afternoon that there is some worthy organization holding a cocktail reception within steps of this chamber.
• 57:24
  And that's been true in Republican and Democratic majorities.
• 57:29
  We have not forbidden the serving of alcohol in this building.
• 57:34
  To the contrary, almost every afternoon, Senators attend such receptions, being honored by some group or another.
• 57:43
  They are served alcohol, they consume alcohol, not to excess, and they return to this floor and cast votes.
• 57:54
  The Senate would then vote 53 to 47 to reject uh John Tower uh as Secretary of Defense.
• 58:02
  And it would cause some, like I said, and you can if you pick it up on some of the interviews on oral histories, some hard feelings that Bob Dole still carried about about that debate and about the hypocrisy of the whole thing.
• 58:15
  And ironically, it was his fellow Kansas Senator, Nancy Kassenbaum, who voted against uh Secretary uh uh John Tower being the Secretary of Defense, the only Republican to do so.
• 58:29
  So uh John Tower ended up with this kind of black mark on his name that he really did not deserve.
• 58:37
  Whether or not he drank to excess at times in his extramarital situations, you know, you can say he deserves that, but that's not been a disqualifier uh in the past, and uh and it and it and there's a lot of hypocrisy there.
• 58:51
  Uh I can tell you from being around politicians, there's a lot of hypocrisy in in what happened to John Tower that wasn't very fair.
• 59:00
  But he came out and he spoke to the uh to the press, and we have a little bit of that for you.
• 59:05
  It is time for the bitterness, rancor, and anger to fade.
• 59:11
  And for those elements of government who have been involved in the confirmation process to unite and to be about the people's business.
• 59:22
  I will be recorded as the first cabinet nominee in the history of the Republic to be rejected in the first 90 days of a presidency and perhaps be harshly judged.
• 59:33
  But I depart from this place at peace with myself, knowing that I have given a full measure of devotion to my country.
• 59:43
  No public figure in my memory has been subjected to such a far-reaching and thorough investigation, nor had his human foibles beared to such intensive and demeaning public scrutiny.
• 59:57
  And yet there is no finding that I have ever breached established legal and ethical standards, nor been derelict in my duty.
• 1:00:06
  Finally, uh, sadly, John Tower really never got the opportunity to clear some of this up or to clear his name.
• 1:00:14
  Uh, you know, um i i uh the and I think yes, what you do pick up from people like Sam Nunn, who who were opposed to him, that they try to talk about what an honorable guy he was, because he was an honorable guy.
• 1:00:26
  The guy built the Republican Party in Texas, uh, and he had some flaws, but I don't know that he deserved quite to be humiliated the way he was, but maybe that's bipartisan hat on it.
• 1:00:36
  But he he didn't live very long after this rejection happened.
• 1:00:41
  On April 5th, 1991, he was on flight 2311 into Brunswick, Georgia with his middle daughter Marion, and an astronaut named Sonny Carter on Atlantic Southeast Airlines when it crashed and killed everybody on board.
• 1:00:56
  So he died uh just barely two years after uh this Senate confirmation hearing.
• 1:01:05
  And uh sadly that, you know, that was the end of the John Tower story.
• 1:01:09
  But it was really a remarkable story because he's right there, right behind Strom Thurman, as one of the two people who really led the South and the Southwest to the Republican Party.
• 1:01:19
  And hopefully that is something that will he will be remembered for um as time has gone by rather than for this uh rejection from the Senate.
• 1:01:29
  Now that I think the only good that came of that is and from my I'm not being selfish about this because I was a big tower supporter.
• 1:01:38
  He was we were fraternity brothers and all that stuff, Captain Sigmas.
• 1:01:42
  And he was and he was one of the guys that took part in all these, he'd go to all these conclaves, speak to college students, you know, even though he'd been out of college for years.
• 1:01:52
  I mean, he really was a good person in a lot of ways.
• 1:01:55
  But there was always that question that, you know, after Bush won the primary uh and and I lost, that uh you know, when I won the election, then I wouldn't be a good leader.
• 1:02:10
  It's always some, but I think I think my efforts in the tower nomination kind of morphed that over.
• 1:02:19
  Because that was also right out of the bat.
• 1:02:21
  I mean, it was the first 10 years.
• 1:02:22
  Yeah, it was pretty tough for Bush to lose one of his good friends plus you know, somebody thought was qualified.
• 1:02:33
  Was he angry?
• 1:02:34
  And did you see that I I don't remember, you know, I I'd have to guess, but I'd I I would be so they knew Tyre pretty well.
• 1:02:48
  I mean, he knew John Tower.
• 1:02:50
  And um but let's face it, Tower had a problem, and the problem cost him a job.