Goodness, greatness of Bush

Ifirst met George Herbert Walker Bush when I was a student at the University of Arkansas. He was a Republican rising star from the neighboring state of Texas. Despite my age, I was already a committed Democrat, albeit in the centrist mold of many of my role models at the time.

Even then it was clear that George H.W. Bush’s career would transcend party and politics. President Bush, who passed away last month, dedicated his time on earth to public service. To borrow his own phrase, he spent 94 years as a “point of light,” a shining example of decency and courage in a world too often lacking both. As we remember his extraordinary life, we’re reminded of the true meaning of patriotism, and we’re called upon to come together in the spirit of unity and shared responsibility he unfailingly embraced.

As a Navy pilot, an ambassador to the United Nations, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency, President Bush time and time again put country over party. He made tremendous sacrifices—and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice—in order to protect and serve all of America, not just one faction or group. Even as an elected official, when it might have been easier to govern with only his base in mind, George H.W. Bush reached out to Americans from a wide range of backgrounds, and from both political parties.

I know this because I was one of those Americans. When I was Chairman and CEO of Arkla Gas, I got to know George H.W. Bush and his wonderful wife, Barbara. When they moved into the White House, President Bush appointed me to the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Environmental Quality.

Serving in these roles was a great honor. It was also an extraordinary glimpse into President Bush’s style of leadership. He wanted good ideas, no matter where they came from. He believed in putting would-be adversaries— Republicans and Democrats, business leaders and environmental advocates—in the same room, knowing that common ground would emerge. He truly believed that we could come together, as Americans, to find solutions to our greatest challenges.

In the 1992 election, I supported my lifelong friend and fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton, and after the transition became his chief of staff. will never forget my wife, Donna, and I being with President-elect and Mrs. Clinton on Inauguration Day in 1993 and encountering President and Mrs. Bush as they were saying their goodbyes to the White House service staff. It was an emotional moment, but they handled it with grace and civility, greeting the Clintons (and the Gores) warmly and welcoming them to what would be their home for the next eight years.

I am happy to say my relationship with President Bush continued, and even deepened, in the years that followed.

Seven months after taking office, President Clinton asked me to reach out to his predecessor and invite him to join us for the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords. President Bush was initially and understandably reluctant to return to the White House.

But in the end he understood that his presence would help make the event a success, and improve the possibility for Middle East peace. He accepted our invitation.

That was the kind of leader President Bush was. He was a fierce competitor, yet he knew that service is about more than winning. For him, service was about seizing every opportunity to make the world safer and America stronger.

This was certainly true when it came to negotiating NAFTA. In 1993, President Clinton assigned me the responsibility to shepherd NAFTA through Congress.

It was a difficult job, but one made far easier by President Bush’s skillful negotiation of the deal through his presidency. It was in no small part thanks to the earlier work done by his team that NAFTA passed Congress with both Democratic and Republican votes, and grew the economy in all of its three signatory countries in the decades that followed.

After the conclusion of my White House tenure, I was fortunate to stay in contact with President Bush and saw him regularly when I traveled to Houston. Over time, the two ex-presidents and former opponents became improbable friends and partners, and I noted that whenever I spoke about their friendship it drew warm applause, even as our politics grew more polarized and partisan.

Working together to help people around the world, whether through the work of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or in Indonesia after the devastating tsunami, the two ex-presidents supported hard-hit communities. But perhaps most of all, they showed us the best of America. If two former presidents could put aside past differences and bitter political disputes, coming together in the service of something larger, then surely the rest of us can do the same.

Today, at times, it seems as if the civility and commitment to service exemplified by President George H.W. Bush is in short supply. Yet I believe it is still there, beneath the surface, a spirit of shared sacrifice and shared responsibility waiting to be rekindled. When President Clinton entered the Oval Office, he famously found a note waiting for him from his predecessor. “Your success now is our country’s success,” President Bush wrote. “I am rooting hard for you.”

George H.W. Bush leaves behind a loving family, including sons George W. Bush and Jeb Bush. He leaves behind a large and loyal collection of friends and former staff, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to know and work with over the years. But perhaps most of all, he leaves behind a message of unity for all of us. His memory urges us to summon the spirit of bipartisanship and mutual respect with which he lived his life.

One of America’s great modern statesmen has passed on, and left the future of the country he loved in our hands. As he might have put it, our success now is our country’s success. True, it’s a daunting responsibility. But I take comfort in knowing that somewhere, President Bush and Barbara are together again—and they’re rooting hard for us.