Joe Barton: “I think it is a measure of President George H.W. Bush that we all think of him as a personal friend. It is literally…”

“I think it is a measure of President George H.W. Bush that we all think of him as a personal friend. It is literally true that he had tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of men and women who considered themselves personal friends. I felt I was very close to the President, although obviously not as close as Mr. Williams, who went to Kennebunkport and really knew the family. I knew the President first as Vice President. When I was a White House Fellow, it was Vice President Bush who had a reception in the White House and gave my class their White House Fellow certificates. As a candidate, one of the reasons that I am here today is because he took a personal interest in me. We had an event that we had planned for myself in Fort Worth, but the NRCC decided that I couldn't win, and they gave that date and that time to Dick Armey. They did the event in Denton, Texas, instead of in Fort Worth, for Dick Armey. I was so mad that I crashed his event. I went up to the security checkpoint and they wouldn't let me in. I asked to speak to the events team, and the head of the events team was a gentleman named Ron Kaufman. Ron knew me. He said: Well, Joe, that is pretty unusual. This is really for Dick Armey. But he went and talked to the Vice President, and the Vice President said sure. So I got on the stage with Roger Staubach and Dick Armey and the Vice President.…”