Exclusive Interview: Former President Bush on Family, Career and Fighting Illiteracy
Friday, April 21, 2006
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192621,00.htmlVAN SUSTEREN: CIA. What's the job you think that was the most fun that was the best one?
G. BUSH: Well, I think the CIA job in some ways because it was the biggest challenge. I was only there a year and I wasn't sure I wanted to go but the president called so I said OK. And, I went there and I just found it fascinating. It was a very difficult time because the CIA had been under fire. You might remember the Church Committee and the Pike Committee and all these things they allegedly had done. My job in a sense was to stand up for the CIA, which I love doing. But I don't know they were all -- China was fascinating. I love the U.N. It helped me when I was president because a lot of the people that were then high-ranking officials had been ambassadors from other countries there. And, the worst one was being chairman of the Republican Party at the Watergate time. It was awful.
VAN SUSTEREN: I mean you couldn't have had a bigger challenge.
G. BUSH: Bigger challenge and a worst challenge, I mean because there were two stacks of mail. You got to do more to keep the party together or do more to defend Nixon. The other stack of mail just would be "Why are you keeping the party so close to this? The party didn't have anything to do with Watergate. Why are you out there talking about Nixon?"
VAN SUSTEREN: What was he like, Nixon?
G. BUSH: He was very good at some things and he was very small about others. He hated the Ivy League. He said in a cabinet meeting, "These Ivy League so and so's they do this." You look around the table. Half the cabinet was from the Ivy League. He would sit there.