Brother of Bob Shieffer (CBS) baseball partner with George W Bush

[kentuck]

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/7583.htm

<snip>
Ambassador Schieffer has had a life long fascination with politics. While still attending the University of Texas, he worked in the offices of State Senator Don Kennard and Governor John Connally. In 1972, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives at age 25 and served three terms.

After studying law at the University of Texas, he was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in October 1979. His practice evolved into one focusing on business transactions, particularly those associated with investments and oil and gas.

In 1989, he was an investor in the partnership led by George W. Bush and Edward W. (Rusty) Rose that bought the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. He was designated as Partner-In-Charge of Ballpark Development in 1990. In January 1991, he was named President of the club reporting directly to general partners Bush and Rose. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the club as well as the building of the Ballpark in Arlington. When Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1994, Ambassador Schieffer assumed Bush's duties as general partner. The partnership sold the team in June 1998 to Dallas financier Thomas O. Hicks. He stayed on as President until April 1999, when he resigned to become consultant on the development of the real estate around The Ballpark. After visiting projects around the United States and Europe, Ambassador Schieffer completed his consulting work for Hicks in May 2000. He is the President of J. Thomas Schieffer Management Company and Pablo Operating Company.

[KoKo]

1. Bob Schieffer has always sounded Repug to me. His commentary

at the end of his Sunday shows was always snipey to Democrats. I'm not surprised that there's a family connection.

Actually doesn't even have to be family in DC anymore. The whole Pundit /Inside the Beltway crowd is one big incestual family....Ugh..

[gratuitous]

2. What the establishment will try to tell you

"Well, certainly Mr. Schieffer's brother has had a long and lucrative relationship with the President, but surely you're not suggesting that that would compromise Mr. Schieffer's journalistic integrity? Because it doesn't. End of story."

Okay, let's just grant arguendo that Bob Schieffer won't go easy on his brother's former business partner and current employer. But given this appearance of impropriety and the inevitable suspicions and questions, there wasn't one other journalist in the whole wide world who could have moderated the debate? The whole controversy could have been avoided simply by picking a journalist whose family doesn't owe its current livelihood to President Bush.