BUSH SPEECH WRITERS MINE LBJ

Washington WPI - Top Bush speech writers have been digging through White House archives to turn up speeches from former President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Claude Vowells, senior political researcher for Karl Rove has overseen the process. “LBJ had some excellent writers back in the late ‘60's and early ‘70's,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from our people, it’s just that there were some wonderful turns-of-phrase that resonate perfectly today.”

Senior Bush writer, Ima Beeglyer, does not have any objection, “Working from models has always been a successful technique.” She told WPI, “History repeats itself so sometimes the speech is virtually complete when you open the folder. You tweak a few names, locations and adjust it for pacing. It can be a great tool!”

Vowells said that what was surprising was that they had turned up some, “very timely” LBJ speeches written by Bill Moyers. “The worm turns, I guess!” he added.