Lee Atwater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater

Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater (February 27, 1951 – March 29, 1991) was an American political consultant and strategist to the Republican Party. He was an adviser to U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Childhood and early life

Atwater was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alma "Toddy" (Page), a school teacher, and Harvey Dillard Atwater, an insurance adjustor. He had two siblings, Ann and Joe. He grew up in Aiken, South Carolina. When Lee was five, his three-year-old brother, Joe, was scalded to death when he pulled a deep fryer full of hot oil onto himself.

As a teenager in Columbia, South Carolina, Atwater played guitar in a rock band, The Upsetters Revue. Even at the height of his political power, he would often play concerts in clubs and church basements, solo or with B.B. King, in the Washington, D.C. area. He released an album called "Red, Hot And Blue" on Curb Records, featuring Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Sam Moore, Chuck Jackson, and King. Robert Hilburn wrote about the album in the Los Angeles Times on April 5, 1990: "The most entertaining thing about this ensemble salute to spicy Memphis-style '50s and '60s R&B is the way it lets you surprise your friends. Play a selection such as "Knock on Wood" or "Bad Boy" for someone without identifying the singer, then watch their eyes bulge when you reveal that it's the controversial national chairman of the Republican Party, Lee Atwater." During the 1960s, Atwater briefly played backup guitar for Percy Sledge.

In 1973, Atwater graduated from Newberry College, a small private Lutheran institution in Newberry, South Carolina, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. At Newberry, Atwater served as the governor of the South Carolina Student Legislature. Atwater earned a Master of Arts degree in communications from the University of South Carolina in 1977. Atwater married Sally Dunbar in 1978; they had three children, Sara Lee, Ashley Page, and Sally Theodosia.

Political career

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater#Political_career

Musical career

Atwater recorded an album with B.B. King and others on Curb Records in 1990 titled Red Hot & Blue. He performed with Paul Shaffer and his band in an episode of Late Night with David Letterman.

Personal life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Atwater#Personal_life

Legacy

Sidney Blumenthal has speculated that, had Atwater lived, he would have run a stronger re-election campaign for Bush than the President's unsuccessful 1992 effort against Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.

Atwater's political career is the subject of the feature-length documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

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