"Mark my words — if Bob [Krueger] beats Sen. [John] Tower next year, you'll see him run for president sooner rather than later," the late Doug Harlan, who had lost a U.S. House race to Krueger in 1974, told me in 1977.
In March of 1978, the Texas Observer asked the Senate hopeful: "Do you want to be president?" "Sure," Bob Krueger replied. He and his aides were already discussing a race for the White House in six years.
When Krueger died last week at 86, he was recalled much more for his later years as a passionate human rights advocate while ambassador to Burundi and Botswana. Memories of his earlier incarnation as a quicksilver star in the Democratic Party and possible president were dim and mostly forgotten.
When Democrat Krueger and Republican Harlan had squared off for an open U.S. House seat in West Texas, it was a remarkable clash: both were PhDs (and both had studied at Texas' Rice University and earned Masters Degrees at Duke University in North Carolina) and, at the time of their contest, both were bachelors.
First-time office-seeker Krueger had upset the favorite in the Democratic primary, State Sen. Nelson Wolff of San Antonio. In the so-called "Watergate Year" of 1974, Krueger won by 53% to 45% and at 39 was immediately tagged as someone going places.
With his unmistakable baritone voice, his polish and mastery of the works of William Shakespeare (Oxford graduate Krueger frequently spiced speeches with quotes from the Bard and the late-Elizabethan poet Sir John Davies), the Texan was easily noticed in the largest Democrat class in the history of the House.
Rated 62% by the American Conservative Union, Krueger was a center-right Democrat. He voted for construction of the B-1 bomber and building the neutron bomb, cuts in solar energy research, and against gutting right-to-work provisions. Before Mario Cuomo and Joe Biden, Krueger was firmly opposed to abortion (which had become legal nationwide a year before through Roe v. Wade) but vowed not to support laws that imposed his views on others.
But his great passion was deregulating the prices of oil and natural gas — one that particularly caught fire following the energy crunch and long pipelines at the pump in the 1970s. Between championing the issue on the House Commerce Committee and writing scores of articles on deregulation itself, Krueger won over his state's powerful energy community.
In opposing the state's three-term Sen. John Tower, Krueger offered few disagreements with the conservative incumbent but argued he would be a more effective advocate for Texas. The well-traveled Tower, he once quipped, "was too busy sunning himself on the banks of the Seine [River in France], or wherever he chooses to sun himself."
Days before the voting, the two concluded a debate and a smiling Krueger went over to shake hands with Tower. In a picture seen nationwide, Tower looked down and refused to shake hands-prompting the Democrat to question whether his opponent could truly be called "the gentleman from Texas."
Tower hit back in a statewide broadcast, reminding voters he grew up believing a handshake "was not just an idle gesture" but a sign of respect for someone. He could not shake Krueger's hand, the senator explained, because the Democrat "had attacked my family, my wife, and my daughters" — something Krueger denied.
When Texans went to the polls, Tower finally pulled out a win by 0.3% of the vote, or about 11,000 votes out of more than 2.2 million cast.
That was really the end of Krueger's political stardom. When Tower retired in 1984, Krueger placed third in the Democratic primary. In 1990, he won the election to the state's Railroad Commission, which regulates Texas oil and energy.
Three years later, Krueger finally made it to the Senate when then Gov. Ann Richards named him to the vacancy created by Democrat Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's appointment as secretary of the treasury.
In the subsequent special election, Krueger tried to generate interest with TV spots showing him wearing various pairs of glasses and hats. It didn't work and, following what the Houston Chronicle called "the single worst campaign in Texas' modern political history," Republican State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison demolished Krueger by 2-to-1.
Friend Bill Clinton named Krueger ambassador to Burundi in 1994. Moved by the bloody civil war in neighboring Rwanda between Hutu and Tutsi tribes, the fledgling diplomat reached out to the same ethnic groups in Burundi to avoid a repeat disaster.
"We bonded over his role as ambassador during the Rwandan genocide," Anaise Kanimba, daughter of Hotel Rwanda central figure Paul Rusesabagina, told Newsmax. "Bob saw his role not just as being a representative of the American government, which was serious and important, but in doing all he could to help the people of Burundi, both in his personal and professional capacity. This is the mark of a man who took the idea of 'service' very seriously."
In 1995, Krueger's convoy was ambushed by terrorists carrying AK-47s. The Diplomatic security service beat back the attackers, and he was soon recalled by the Clinton administration. A year later he became ambassador to Botswana and was named to represent the secretary of state at the Southern African Development Community.
Bob Krueger never made it to the presidency. But while his early political promise is a long-ago memory, he himself is remembered warmly as a diplomat in a tumultuous region and one who dared and cared.
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