Party animal

He forged such a strong friendship with the Bushes that once former President George H.W. Bush was so eager to unwind at Freeman's place that he left his military aide -- "who has the nuclear codes" -- behind at a Los Angeles hotel, according to Sean Walsh, then a White House press aide. "Here's a man who enjoys Brad's company a heck of a lot."

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'There's that bond'

Walsh said Freeman supported Bush's gubernatorial aspirations early and helped raise money to finance them. "There's that bond from being there from Day One that can really never be torn asunder," Walsh said.

Freeman stayed at the Governor's Mansion whenever he went to Texas, said Joe Allbaugh, Bush's gubernatorial chief of staff and 2000 campaign chief. "They are very close friends. [Freeman] has got a fantastic sense of humor," he said, adding that Bush takes the presidency "very seriously, but he doesn't take himself very seriously."

Freeman paints his loyalty to Bush in broad brushstrokes. He praises the president for ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein and adopting tax cuts.

"He's got character," Freeman said of Bush. "He's got integrity. His word is his bond. I've seen him under fire. I've seen him in a myriad of situations, and he's never disappointed me. He's a man of faith. He's a fantastic husband and parent. And I respect that."

Stories about their friendship are rife. At Freeman's house, Tuttle ticks off a few: The gym story. The Belgium story. The story about Natasha, Miss World. But he reveals no details.

Freeman too is a faithful keeper of the presidential past. In his own way. Once, Freeman says, a reporter asked him if he used to go drinking with Bush and he answered, "All the time." How was Bush under the influence? "How would I know? I was passed out," Freeman quipped. "And the reporter took me seriously."

This, Tuttle interjects, points to one of the biggest bonds between Freeman and the president: Humor.

Bush's jokes have gotten him in trouble too, as at the White House press dinner in March, when Bush showed himself on a big-screen TV pretending to search under furniture for Iraq's yet-to-be-found weapons of mass destruction. Some were deeply offended by the humor at a time when troops were coming home dead and wounded.

What most endears Freeman to Bush, Tuttle says, is that "Brad doesn't want anything."

"He's doing this because he feels George Bush will make a better America," Tuttle says. "What does Brad have to gain by raising money for Bush?"