Exes and Texas

Bryan Burrough has a witty and illuminating article on the rise and fall of political power for Texas in the Washington Post: Death and Texas

A favorite quote (Wendell Wilkie):

: "You know the Good Lord put all this oil into the ground, then someone comes along who hasn't been a success at anything else, and takes it out of the ground. The minute he does that he considers himself an expert on everything from politics to pettycoats


What these wealthy Texas experts mostly were was very conservative, and they spent billions buying politicians by the bucketfull to protect their empires. At the very top level though, their investments didn't pay off that well. LBJ turned liberal and Murchison, one of his prime (and illegal) funders wouldnt even take his calls. HW Bush wasn't wingnut enough for them either. W was, but we all know how he turned out.

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