Rise and fall of a Texas Democrat

On an August night in 1970 in Austin, former President Lyndon B. Johnson thrilled the crowd at a fundraiser for the rising star of the Texas Democratic Party.
"He's a redhead like Thomas Jefferson, and, like Thomas Jefferson, Ben Barnes will be president," the former president proclaimed. "Ben Barnes will someday be the next president of the United States from Texas."
Many in the audience undoubtedly agreed that their 32-year-old lieutenant governor was destined for the political heights. "But it didn't help me at all," Barnes recalled recently.
As he explains in a new memoir, the attention from Johnson helped place him squarely in the sights of President Richard Nixon, who was determined to speed the Republicanization of Texas.
Within three years, Barnes writes, Johnson was dead and Nixon had "orchestrated the destruction of Texas Democrats."
Nixon enlisted former Gov. John Connally for his Cabinet, his Justice Department convicted three top Democrats on federal charges of conspiring to accept bribes in a case that also implicated Connally's successor as governor and the state Democratic chairman, and leaks about his finances sufficiently tarred Barnes to end his electoral career.
The onetime prodigy's memoir, "Barn Burning, Barn Building," provides a detailed recounting of his political rise and fall, which he conceded he wrote "to set the record straight." He flatly denies any wrongdoing, citing interviews with onetime Nixon aides and taped Oval Office conversations.
Democratic era
Beyond his story, the book being formally unveiled next week at the University of Texas provides a fascinating window into a bygone Democratic era that may seem like ancient history to younger readers in this now Republican state.
Besides providing new information about how he got caught up in the Sharpstown scandal, Barnes recounts how he helped young George W. Bush get into the National Guard during the Vietnam War, a story that surfaced in the 2004 campaign. He also describes listening as Connally resisted Nixon's bid to join his Cabinet until a job was first found for George H. W. Bush, who had just lost his second Senate race.
"If it weren't for Connally's pull with Nixon, Bush would have been left twisting in the wind and would never have continued to ascend the party's ladder to the vice presidency, then the presidency," Barnes writes. "In turn, his son George W. Bush would almost certainly never have been president."
He discusses how he and other top Texas Democrats struck a balance between warring liberal and conservative factions in the state party: "Lyndon Johnson, John Connally and I were considered 'conservative' Democrats by the party's liberal wing," he writes.
"But all three of us pushed through dozens of progressive laws ... while ensuring it was politically and socially acceptable for the business community to support the Democratic Party. As a political formula it was -- and still is -- a sure winner."
But party divisions escalated, in part due to Vietnam, making it impossible to maintain unity. In 1972, virtually every top Texas Democrat abandoned George McGovern, though few joined Connally in backing Nixon.
"Johnson told me and Connally, 'You've got to keep it socially acceptable to become a Democrat or we're going to lose Texas, we're going to lose it forever,"' Barnes recalled. Though he remained close to Connally personally -- both later were forced to declare bankruptcy after some failed business deals -- Barnes never followed his mentor into the GOP.
Lobbyist
He never again sought office but has re-emerged in recent years as a prominent lobbyist and fundraiser for top Democrats, including 2004 nominee John Kerry.
He notes that Johnson foresaw the problem Kerry faced in having to defend his Senate votes. When he considered a Senate bid in 1970, Barnes says the former president told him, "I don't think the Senate is a good place to run for president from."
Today's dispute over immigration might similarly impact the GOP, Barnes predicted. "If this immigration bill doesn't get passed and they leave it on the table, I'm not too sure that it isn't going to be for the Republican Party what Johnson's civil rights bill was for the Democratic Party," he said.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.