Reply #6: Hell had no fury like Bob Bullock pissed off! [View All]

[Gman]

Bullock was one man you didn't want pissed off at you. He was legendary for being pissed off. But Bullock was loyal to his friends to a fault and he had countless true friends. He was a great and good man.

When Bush beat Ann in 1994, if you read between the lines in Bullock's inaugural speech for his reelection, he basicly told Bush to just sit back, be the governor and Bullock would make Bush look good. Bush was governor but Bullock was the Lt. Governor and THE most powerful person in the state and Bush had better remember that. That year the GOP had taken over the Senate so Bullock had to play ball with the GOP, but he was still the gatekeeper for legislation. Republicans got some of what they wanted (mostly business related) and Democrats got what they wanted. There never was any damaging legislation passed while Bullock was Lt. Governor and Bush was governor.

As for Bullock controlling or at least influencing Bush, Bush had little choice but to sign legislation Bullock sent to him so in that respect, Bullock controlled Bush. The anecdotes I heard from those around Bullock were that Bullock had tried to take Bush under his wing and guide him.

The last conversation I had with Bullock was about a year before he died. I asked him why he didn't run again and he said his health wasn't the best and that he had bought a mobile home and wanted to do some traveling. Unrelated to running again, I believe he also said he had gotten hurt doing something and was recovering from it, maybe something having to do with his mobile home. I forget now, that was 10 years ago and I hadn't thought about that conversation in a long time.

Bullock died in 1999. Bush became president in 2000. So we'll never really know if Bullock could have had a sobering influence on him after he became president. But over the years I've heard many people remark that Bullock was doing flips in his grave at what Bush was doing as president.