Bush Raps PR Firm for Effort to Capitalize on Links to Him

George Bush today assailed a longtime associate’s public relations firm for trying to capitalize on ties to the vice president. “I denounce it,” Bush said.

The vice president said in an interview that he had spoken to Fred Bush, a top Republican fund-raiser who is not related to him, about the solicitation to the Haitian government made by Fred Bush’s partner, Michael Govan.

“I denounce it. I don’t like it. I think it’s wrong,” Bush said, giving his first comment on the matter during an interview aboard Air Force Two en route to Cincinnati.

Asked why voters should believe he would fill a Bush administration with people who were not intent on influence peddling, Bush replied, “They know I’ve been in public life for 20 years, and no one has ever made any allegations about impropriety on my part, because they know how strongly I feel about ethics in government.”

The GOP presidential nominee, who rarely mentions the White House ethics office he proposed early in the campaign, said he still intends to set up one if elected.

Fred Bush has said his partner acted over his veto and without his knowledge in seeking a contract for Bush & Co. to represent Haiti. He called it a “rotten, rotten thing to happen” to him and to the Bush campaign. The firm’s letter touted Fred Bush’s connections to the vice president.