An oath and a reunion

Any family reunion is a rich opportunity for family drama. Imagine the possibilities when the reunion is also the occasion of a presidential inauguration.

In her 1994 memoirs, Barbara Bush wrote that she received much unsolicited advice about who should deliver the invocation and benediction on her husband’s big day in 1989: “It wasn’t just friends and strangers who got into the prayer act,” Bush wrote. “One of our very distant relatives who had just been ordained let it be known to my office that she would come only if she could give a prayer. We turned her down [on the prayer], and guess what? She came anyway.”

“That sure doesn’t sound like me,” said the Rev. Jeanny House, George H.W. Bush’s 50-year-old second cousin. House, who lives in Eau Claire, Wis., oversees more than 60 United Church of Christ congregations in her state. “I would have offered to give the prayer at the inauguration, but it turns out they went with Billy Graham instead. Go figure.” (House, a lifelong Democrat, was among hundreds of Bush family members who attended the 1989 inauguration, and, she reported, she had a great time.)

This time around, about 100 members of the extended Bush clan have been invited to Washington for this week’s inaugural festivities. There is, for some of them, a certain bittersweetness. “We are, all of us, aware of how lucky we are to have had a family interest in five presidential [and vice presidential] inaugurations,” wrote Bush cousin John Ellis in response to e-mailed questions. “Aware as well that this might be the last.” (The operative word is “might.” Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said he has no plans to seek the presidency. His son, Texas attorney George P. Bush, spoke at the Republican convention in New York City last summer and is often touted as the next generation’s political star.)

All family members get the VIP treatment at a Bush inaugural, but some are more equal than others. This week, for instance, Papa and Barbara Bush -- “the 41s” as Laura Bush’s press secretary Gordon Johndroe refers to them -- get first claim to the Queen’s bedroom, the less famous room across the hall from the Lincoln bedroom. Some other lucky relatives (Johndroe did now know who) will get the Lincoln. The president’s siblings -- Marvin, Neil, Doro and Jeb -- and their families will commandeer Blair House, the federal government’s official guest house.

The “41s,” who attended no inaugural balls four years ago, have decided to attend one of the nine this time, according to the couple’s chief of staff, Jean Becker. “Last time, 41 said, ‘I’m 80. I don’t have to do balls anymore,’ ” said Becker. This year, they will be at the Commander in Chief ball at the National Building Museum. And they are planning to attend today’s “Saluting Those Who Serve” party at the MCI Center.

More distant relatives -- cousins, uncles, aunts -- will be scattered around town. “No White House sleepover,” said Ellis, 51, a partner in a New York venture capital firm who is a nephew to the first President Bush and first cousin to the second. (Ellis, who sees the president two to three times a year, briefly gained fame in the contested election of 2000 when, in the aftermath of election night confusion, it became known that he was working as a consultant to the Fox News Channel political desk when it famously became the first network to call Florida for Bush.)

He and the other invited relatives will be well taken care of by the inaugural committee through its special office devoted solely to “friends and family.” They will have special seats at the inauguration, will be invited to a private prayer service on Thursday morning and will have their pick of the many balls and concerts that will be held. The highlight for many will be a White House luncheon hosted by the president and Mrs. Bush on Wednesday, the day before the swearing in.

“The shuffling of the family.... It’s a great logistical process,” said Doug Wead, who worked as an aide in the first Bush White House. “Each family member -- brother, sister, cousin -- each is graded according to a category. Some get limos, others get vans and others get buses. And actually, the ones on the buses have the most fun.”

George H.W. Bush, a prolific letter writer who keeps in touch with relatives close and distant, invited hundreds of family members to watch him take the oath of office three times -- twice as vice president to Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1985, and then as president in 1989.

When he ascended to the White House, he invited the whole family over for lunch the day after the inauguration (he couldn’t have had the lunch the day before the inauguration since the White House did not become technically his until after the Reagans vacated). “The family lunch was funny and interesting and very crowded,” said Hilary House, 40, a law student in Seattle who began corresponding with her cousin when he was vice president and she was upset about the administration’s policies in South Africa.

“He read my letters and always wrote back,” she said. “I used to receive Christmas cards every year from George and Barbara. But I was never on young George’s list.”

House, a first cousin to the Rev. Jeanny House, said she remembered having dinner with some of her very Democratic cousins in Washington during the 1989 Bush presidential inauguration. “And one of my cousins asked, ‘Did anyone actually vote for the guy?’ And none of us had.” (Hilary’s sister, Sheila House, a 49-year-old Cape Cod therapist, said she thought it would be hypocritical to attend since she had voted for Michael Dukakis. “And I am very upset with these second-term parties,” she said. “Why should they spend all this money? It’s ridiculous. I was against it with Clinton and I’m against it with Bush.” )

But that didn’t seem to matter to the 41st president, who invited his extended family “down through second cousins,” said Jeanny House, who, like Hilary and Sheila, shares a great-grandfather (Samuel Prescott Bush) with George W.

Last year, the House cousins received national attention after they launched a website called “Bush Relatives for Kerry.” In the spring, Jeanny House attended a rally in Green Bay for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry. She pushed herself to the front and shouted to Kerry, “There’s something I want to tell you: George Bush is my second cousin and I am behind you all the way!” Kerry, she said, did a double take and then suggested she start a group of like-minded relatives. He had an aide take her name and contact information, but she never heard from the campaign.

A few months later, the House cousins launched the anti-Bush site. It was not an easy decision for Jeanny House to make such a public statement against her kin. “I certainly would not have done it if my grandmother, Mary Bush House -- Prescott Bush’s sister -- were still alive,” she said.

Ellis, for his part, seemed to think there would be no lingering hard feelings. “Since the president won the election,” he wrote, “all is forgiven. On the other hand, I don’t suspect that they’ll be among the throng.”

Indeed they won’t. The Houses were not invited to their cousin’s inauguration festivities and say they would not attend even if they were.

They weren’t invited four years ago, either. But as Jeanny House pointed out, “You got to remember that one was thrown together pretty fast.”