- Robert Mosbacher
Robert Adam Mosbacher, Sr. (born
March 11 1927 ) is a U.S. businessman. He was the Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992.Born in
Mount Vernon, New York to Emil Mosbacher and Gertrude Schwart Mosbacher [cite book |last=Merrill |first=Brian |authorlink= |title=From George W. to George W.: The Presidents and their Cabinets |publisher=CreateSpace Publishing |date=2008 |pages=332 |isbn=1438259298] , his father was a wealthy stock trader who cashed in most of his holdings before Wall Street crashed, so the family did not suffer during the Depression.Robert Mosbacher graduated from
Washington & Lee University inVirginia in 1947 with a degree in business administration. He then went to Texas, where his father had some oil investments, and got into the oil business himself.In 1954 he found a million-dollar field of natural gas in south Texas. Since then,
Mosbacher Energy Company has been very successful. His accumulated wealth and political connections have kept the Mosbacher family as one of Houston's wealthiest and well-known in the affluent River Oaks neighborhood ofHouston ,Texas . [" [http://www.cleanhouston.org/comments/river_oaks/news/landmark.htm RIVER OAKS GAINS ANOTHER HISTORIC LANDMARK] ," "River Oaks Examiner"]His son,
Robert Mosbacher Jr. , is also a Houston businessmen and Republican politician.Robert Mosbacher Jr. is also a political appointee in the George W. Bush Administration. Mosbacher Jr. is the head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a US government agency designed to assist economic growth by utilizing the private sector.Political career
Mosbacher's primary claim to fame was his competition for presidential campaign contracts with the first President Bush.
In 1992, "Sources close to the former president
George H.W. Bush sayKarl Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnistRobert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted" ("Esquire Magazine ", January 2003). As Novak provided some evidence of Rove's motive in his column describing former senatorPhil Gramm 's later firing of Mosbacher: "Also attending the session was political consultant Karl Rove, who had been shoved aside by Mosbacher". Mosbacher maintains that "Rove is the only one with a motive to leak this. We let him go. I still believe he did it."Prior to this he was national finance campaign chairman for President Ford in 1976. He was also a Member of President Reagan's Task Force on Private Sector Intiatives 1981-1983, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars . He then became Secretary of Commerce in 1989 after he directed the George H. W Bush 1988 Presidential Election Campaign.He is now the general chairman of
John McCain 's bid for the White House.He has also been referenced in the television show "The Simpsons" episode "Two Bad Neighbors."
References
External links
* [http://www.worldenergysource.com/articles%2Fpdf%2Fmosbacher_we_v10n2.pdf Looking into the Crystal Ball: Forecasting the Future of Oil and Gas, World Energy Magazine Volume 10 Number 2] , by Robert Mosbacher.
* [http://www.worldenergysource.com/articles/text/mosbacher_WE_v3n1.cfm High Oil Prices and Consumer Opinion: A Problem of Perspective, World Energy Magazine Volume 3 Number 1] , by Robert Mosbacher
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