All in the Family
It’s rare that the public gets a glimpse of the Bush family convened. But at President and Barbara Bush’s June 1999 birthday party at the Astrohall in Houston, the Bushes sat for a portrait. The Bush Dynasty is as commercial as it is political. Neil (left) is best known for taking down Silverado Savings & Loan in Denver, which left taxpayers with a $1 billion tab. George W. unloaded $848,560 in Harken Energy stock at $4 a share — shortly before Iraq invaded Kuwait and the stock fell to $3 then $2.37 a share. He failed to report the sale to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and, as a Harken board member, violated federal law that regulates insider trading. Long before he was governor of Florida, Jeb sold $74 billion in agricultural water pumps to Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida — using President Bush’s name to close the deal and U.S. Export-Import Bank loans to finance it. Marvin, the Bush brother with the lowest profile, caught up with George Sr. and Neil when they visited Kuwait in 1993 — after President Bush had defeated Saddam Hussein and lost to Bill Clinton. In Kuwait, where George Sr. received a hero’s welcome, Marvin tried to sell electronic fences to the Kuwaiti defense ministry, while Neil pitched anti-pollution equipment. Dorothy Walker Bush, the youngest Bush sibling, doesn’t seem to be a player in the family deals. The press — and the Gore campaign — failed to make an issue of the Bush family business.
This article appears in November 17 • 2000.