TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 5 26 So anyway, I did that. But the key story behind that…I picked a district in East Harris County. I ran against a six-term Democrat opponent incumbent who had never had a Republican opponent. And the party, everybody said, "You are a nice young guy, but good luck." Nobody would give me any money or anything. But there was one woman, who, a friend of a friend said that she wanted to help a federal candidate, a state candidate and a local candidate, and that I ought to go see her. So I drove down and visited with her. We had tea or coffee, and she agreed to help me. Her husband had been in Congress a few years earlier. As it turned out, I was the only of her three candidates that won. So she kind of adopted me, and that woman's name was Barbara Bush. The other two candidates that she helped that year—and I love telling school kids this— her federal candidate was her oldest son, George. He ran for Congress, and he didn't win. I don't ever know what happened to him. And then her statewide candidate was her hus- band's tennis partner, who ran for attorney general of Texas. And that was James Baker. So he would have been attorney general of Texas, but instead he was White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of State. All because he lost. She used to delight in telling the story, 'Ed's my candidate. He's the only one who won.' And I would always say, 'Yeah, that's why I ended up so famous compared to those other two guys who lost.' Later on, after running for the Railroad Commission and losing, that same year, her husband George got elected president and I got a phone call to come to Washington. So I went up as interstate commerce commissioner. And that produced one of the great scenes in Senate confirmation history. When Senator Hollings from South Carolina—who didn't like me because I was still in my 30s, didn't like my stances on truck deregulation—kept asking me, 'Why are you here?' And finally, he was running out of time, and he said, 'Let me put it to you this way. Are you the most qualified person to be on the Interstate Commerce Commission?' I said, 'Mister Chairman, no, because it would be presumptuous of me to say I am most quali- fied.' So he had me, he said, 'Well, if you aren't the most qualified person to be here, why are you here?' And I said, 'Because I know Barbara Bush, and they don't.' And he just started laughing hysterically and said, 'That's the most honest answer I've ever gotten out of a witness.' But it's true. Nothing we do, we do on our own. I mean, would I have gotten elected without Barbara Bush? Yeah, but then I wouldn't have known her, I wouldn't have known her husband. Because I did knock on 19,404 doors in that first race. But we always have to remember that we are just a small piece. What we accomplish depends on how other pieces fit in there. Q | At your recent State of the County address, you were introduced by one of your former interns, Gabe Baker. For a young person to be so excited about the future, it must be a good feeling to see this next generation of leaders, particularly those like Gabe who you have mentored. A | John Tower was a Republican U.S. Senator, the only Republican elected in 1961, before the Republicans won anything in Texas, and he served a long time. He was considered this staunch conservative. And of course by the end of his career he was considered a moderate, and some people didn't like him. But at the end of his career, before he died in a plane crash, he was asked, 'What's your proudest accomplishment?' He had passed all of these bills and done all of this stuff. He didn't hesitate. He said, 'Proudest accomplishment? That's easy. It's all of the people who have worked for me who have gone on to do better things.' I thought that was just the coolest statement. I mean, that's really much more important. Yeah, I could tell you the bills I have passed, or this, that and the other. But if all of these people who have worked for me go on to do bigger and better things, then my life is good. Q | What were some of the key points of your State of the County address? A | The two main topics were indigent health care and transportation. And when I say transportation, I mean everything: roads, rail and water. And in a way, they are similar. My staff, where I used to work, got tired of me using the analogy—I used to talk about transportation For the full interview, visit TMCNews.org Judge Emmett touring Hurricane Ike aftermath with Texas Dept. of Public Safety and working to coordinate PODs. (Credit: Office of Judge Emmett)

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