Victor Henderson Ashe

· Born in Knoxville, TN January 1, 1945

· Member of the Order of Skull & Bones (’67), Bohemian Club of San Francisco.

· Served in the U.S. Marine Corps Air Reserves 1967-1973.

· Graduated from Yale University (B.A. 1967) and the University of Tennessee College of Law (J.D. 1974).

· Intern for Congressman Bill Brock 1965.

· Staff assistant of Senator Howard Baker 1967.

· Representative in the Tennessee House of Representatives 1968-1974.

· Senator in the Tennessee State Senate 1975-1984.

· Mayor of Knoxville, TN 1988-2003.

· President of the United States Conference of Mayors.

· Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

· Former Executive Director of the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors.

· Served on the National Service Corporation Board, on the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

· Director of Fannie 2001

· Ambassador to Poland 2004-present.

Quotes

• "I changed my position on the issue because I changed the position I had. I was consistent in representing the constituency I had at the time." – Victor Ashe, about being for government annexation of private property without the consent of property owners as mayor when he had been against it as a Legislator.
• "In hindsight, I would say clearly I regret it, and in hindsight different decisions should have been made." -Victor Ashe, after a federal jury, in 2000, determined he and retired Fire Chief Bruce Cureton violated the civil rights of five firefighters who had supported his opponent, Ivan Harmon, in the 1995 election. The jury found Ashe and Cureton transferred the firefighters on the eve of the election and later denied them raises (read the verdict).
• "Being mayor is the single most important job you can have if you want to make a difference in your home town." –Victor Ashe
• "Gore is first and foremost a Washington politician who attempts to conceal his basic liberal philosophy" –Victor Ashe, when running for the U.S. Senate in 1984.
• "You will pay any tax increase I tell you to pay. You can afford it." -Victor Ashe, Republican, at city council meeting in Oct 2000, responding to complaints from business reps of their $500,000 tax increase from involuntary annexation.
• "I serve at the pleasure of the president." –Victor Ashe
• "God will be standing there going, 'But, but, but,’ trying to enter the conversation.” - Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith’s joke about what will happen when Ashe goes to heaven.
• “He’ll ruminate and cogitate until his ruminator and cogitator can’t take it any more." -George Korda
• "The night it all came down I could not stop shivering. It changed the way I viewed a lot of things. For the first time, sitting on Council [with mayor Ashe], I really felt I was in the presence of evil. I had disagreed with people on many occasions and felt strongly about many things, but I never ever had felt something I could describe as the presence of evil. Until that night. There was just darkness. Hopelessness." -City Councilmember Carlene Malone

Interesting Facts

• In 1974, a Judge ruled that Ashe’s run for the Tennessee State Senate was illegal because he would turn 30, the minimum age to serve, after the election. Ashe’s mother ran instead, was elected, and resigned after her first day in office and appointed her son Senator (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
• Speaker John Wilder once offered him $10 to sit down and shut up (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
• His opponent in his 1978 re-election bid, Carl Warner, took a swing at him after Ashe made what Warner termed a snide remark (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
• The only political race he lost was to Al Gore, Jr. in 1984 for the U.S. Senate. (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
• Ashe opposed the referendum on term limits that resulted in his inability to run for a 5^th term as mayor.
• John Lee sued the City Corporation and its individual agents, including Mayor Victor Ashe, for illegally towing his Honda automobile, without a parking ticket. The City Inc. then denied that they had towed it for over six weeks, and listed the vehicle as "stolen" in the National Criminalistics Information Computer (NCIC), operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). This resulted in a $700 towing and storage bill from the Corporation's contractor, Sutherland Avenue Wrecker Service. (read more).
• Ashe was George W. Bush’s roommate at Yale and they were both on the Cheerleading Squad together.

Rumors

There is a rumor on the net that Victor Ashe and George W. Bush have been gay lovers. The source of this rumor is Sherman Skolnick. He seems to be the sole source of this and many other rumors. Before Kitty Kelley’s book “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty” was released, Skolnick claimed that her book substantiated his assertions. He also accused her of using him as an unnamed source. Upon being published, the book was absent of nearly all of his claims. Unsubstantiated rumors about Victor Ashe include:

· Ashe was arrested twice in drag for picking up homosexual prostitutes in public restrooms in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.

· Peter Jennings introduced Ashe on national TV in San Francisco as "The gay mayor from Knoxville."

· Ashe wanted to rename Gay Street to "Gay Way."

· Ashe’s mother was arrested for hit-and-run while hiding out at the mayor’s house.

· The National Enquirer in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was shut down by the F.B.I. for “Anthrax” after 9/11 because they had pictures of Ashe engaged in a Skull & Bones homosexual ritual.

· George W. Bush and Ashe have had a long-term homosexual affair. It is widely reported that they have spent much private time together over the years including their time as roommates at Yale, a seven city tour when Ashe was running for the U.S. Senate, numerous stays by Ashe at the White House, visits by Bush to Ashe in Knoxville, and other trips together without Laura Bush.

· Ashe and Bush would rendezvous at a Tennessee location owned by the purported top financier of Osama Bin Laden.

· Paul O'Neill was sacked as Treasury Chief because he was unable to stop Secret Service agents from leaking the Ashe affair to the press, or from quitting their jobs in disgust.

· The “Red Chinese Secret Police” have used the Bush/Ashe affair to get secrets out of the White House.

· Ashe was nominated Ambassador to Poland because the press had learned about the Bush/Ashe affair and because Ashe has AIDS.