February 7, 2007 -- The extended clan of George W. Bush includes the family of convicted child molester Mary Kay Letourneau. George H. W. Bush and John G. Schmitz, Sr. were fellow GOP members of the House of Representatives in 1970. However, the links between Schmitz, a former John Birch Society member who was ousted because of his extremism and who was detested by President Richard Nixon, and the Bushes go beyond sharing right-wing political beliefs. John G. Schmitz, Jr., the attorney son of the late Congressman Schmitz, was deputy counsel to President George H. W. Bush. He refused to testify before Iran-Contra Independent Counsel Judge Lawrence Walsh. Schmitz also clerked for then U.S. Appellate Court Judge Antonin Scalia from 1983 to 1984. Schmitz's sister is Mary Kay Fualaau (formerly Letourneau), a former elementary school teacher in Washington State who was convicted of two counts of statutory rape of her 13-year old student in 1996. Letourneau gave birth to a daughter. Letourneau later married the student.
The elder Schmitz, the 1972 presidential candidate of the American Independent Party (the party that was later disowned by its 1968 presidential candidate, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace), died in January 2001, the same month George W. Bush was sworn in as President. Like Bush, Schmitz was fond of making Hitler-like salutes. Columnist Michael Barone wrote about Schmitz's presidential candidacy, [Schmitz] "distinguished himself with his direct talk and 'puckishly humorous' wit." Schmitz suggested that he had no problem with Nixon going to China, he just objected to his coming back. Schmitz accused Nixon of being backed by Moscow and Peking. As for Democratic candidate George McGovern, Schmitz accused him of being endorsed by Hanoi and the Manson Family. Schmitz was endorsed by the neo-Nazi Liberty Lobby, a group that promoted Holocaust denial and whose founders had links to George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party. After George Wallace was shot in 1972 by Arthur Herman Bremer, Schmitz condemned Wallace for reverting back to the Democratic Party. It was later discovered that Bremer had strong contacts in Milwaukee with the John Birch Society, a group with which Schmitz had strong links. In 1982, Schmitz, a California state senator, was under investigation by child protective service workers. A 13-month old baby boy, later discovered to have been fathered by Schmitz and his German political science student at Santa Ana College, was found to have had hair tied around his penis to the point the organ was almost severed.
John G. Schmitz Jr. is married to the sister of Columba Bush, wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Letourneau-Fualaau's and John Schmitz Jr.'s brother in Joseph Schmitz, the Defense Department Inspector General under Donald Rumsfeld who helped cover up sexual depravity, including child molestation, in Abu Ghraib and other American concentration camps. Joseph Schmitz also served as an assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese. Joseph Schmitz, an activist with the right-wing Federalist Society and a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, is now General Counsel for the Prince Group, the parent firm of mercenary firm Blackwater USA. The Prince Group is run by Erik Prince, a White House intern for George H. W. Bush. Prince's father, Edgar, was a co-founder of the right-wing Christian Family Research Council (now run by Tony Perkins) with Gary Bauer. Prince's sister, Betsy, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, is married to Dick DeVos, a wealthy neo-con Republican who is the son of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. The younger DeVos lost the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial race to Governor Jennifer Granholm.