Excerpts
from Sander Hicks' unpublished interview
With Former Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox
Interview
Transcript 1/2/02
by
Sander Hicks
Jim
Mattox:
As
Lloyd Bentsen said, "Politics in Texas is a contact
sport." Rove clearly participates in that form. He causes
a [political campaign] headquarters to be run by professionals.
Volunteer staff are kept far from decision-making, because
of the kind of down and dirty stuff they put forth.
The
thing most notable in all probability is that Rove was
doing public relations for companies like Philip Morris
and other companies, while he was also working on Texas
GOP campaigns. He had a direct conflict of interest,
he was getting retainer’s fees from those companies,
allowing those companies to funnel even larger amounts
of money [into the GOP]. We continually felt [this]
after looking at the [large] fees that people were being
paid by Rove.
The
big powerful law companies cover a multitude of sins.
RE:
Bush on Drugs
Bush’s
parenting style was also highly criticized.
It’s
notable that Jenna Bush was discovered to be a pot smoker,
and the story (and the irony) has gone unreported. [story
in Salon http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/03/23/jenna_bush/]
Rove’s
pattern is to get his candidates on one or two subjects
and carefully script what they have to say. He isolates
them from the press and public, reinventing them. Bush
refused to answer questions about the drug issue. His
kids were doing the same thing…they could be poster
children for [the juvenile deliquency issue] he was
attempting to portray at the time.
RE:
Bush in Time of War
Bush
is trying to be macho, he comes off as quirky, smart-alecky.
It doesn’t come off to me.
[On
September 11,] anyone else would have responded with
some emotions. I saw immaturity and weakness. The public
has responded with patriotism. Bush is making hay out
of the tragedy. If Osama escapes, this could haunt Bush,
might come back a real serious problem.
I
want to give Rove credit—they are smart. They know
how to manipulate the press. Bush knows so little that
its relatively easy to keep him scripted. When I was
Attorney General, we had an occasion to go meet with
Reagan. There were 15 or 20 [state attorneys general]
there, around mid 1983 to 85. Reagan’s handlers
said he was glad to meet with us. There was to be a
question and answer period, and the handlers gave us
three questions we could ask. The questions were relatively
immature. We agreed among ourselves to ask two of the
questions, then get a Republican among us to ask a third
question of our own. The first two questions had no
meaning. For the first two questions, Reagan pulled
index cards out of his inside coat pocket. The whole
discussion was as if he was talking to the PTA, clearly
not appropriate to the group he was talking to. [So
we asked the scripted two questions, then] Bob Steffen
from Kansas [not confirmed it was him, need to be fact-checked]
asked the third question of our own—"Can we get
a commitment from your administration on consumer protection
enforcement?"
As
soon as the question was asked, [Reagan's] handlers
jumped up on stage, "The President must leave now the
time is expired." They ushered him over to have pictures
taken. And there were Republican Attorneys General who
clearly were happy to have their picture taken with
the President. But I said, "This guy is not running
this place."
Jimmy
Carter could discuss anything. Would not step back from
any issue. Reagan was a figurehead, clearly suffering.
