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Texas lays claim to another Bush

JONI JAMES
Published August 11, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Jeb Bush usually gets his way with the Republican-run Florida Legislature, but he had no luck persuading his older son to move home.

George P. Bush, 28, who married Amanda Williams in a closely guarded Episcopal service in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Saturday, has taken a job with a Dallas law firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

The new Mrs. Bush works for a law firm in nearby Fort Worth. The couple met at the University of Texas law school where Bush graduated this summer. He spent the summer clerking for a federal judge.

"He's married a Texan and she's won him over," Bush said Tuesday after a week's vacation. "I am very disappointed in that because I want my family to be near me. But that's a selfish thought."

The governor, who has frequently said he's eager to be a grandfather, called his son's wedding "spectacular" and boasted of a "new daughter, Mandy."

Bush said he dug out "my old tuxedo" for the ceremony and donned a rented silver tie his daughter-in-law picked out for the wedding party.

"It was one of these groovy little silver ties that I don't have in my repertoire," Bush said. "I was just very proud and happy for my boy."

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