C. Boyden Gray opened the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention this morning at the Mayflower Hotel. Gray is currently the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. He previously served as legal counsel to Vice President George H.W. Bush and then as his White House Counsel. Though Gray is a long-time member of the Federalist Society, he said it was actually his late older brother (to whom the society’s current president, Eugene Meyer was a mentor) who got him involved.
Gray focused his opening remarks largely on the United States’ relationship with Belgium, which is where the EU is headquartered. Though it seems many Americans likely wouldn’t associate Belgium with much beyond its chocolate, Gray told the audience that there’s more U.S. investment there than in the entire country of China. “We are joined at the hip,” he said.
He went on to discuss the importance of Europe in general to the global economy, addressing what he’s seen as a move “to make Europe the regulator of the world.” Because Europe has the largest "rich" market, Gray said, other countries must meet the European standard to be successful. Europe’s idea is not to achieve power from its military, but from its ability “to tell the rest of the world how to make its products,” he said.
Gray’s remarks weren’t all business, however. For example, he recalled one particularly juicy anecdote about how difficult it was to get then Vice President George H.W. Bush to speak at the Lawyers Convention 20 years ago. The vice president’s staff apparently took issue with Bush addressing the group, though according to Gray, Bush was enthusiastic at the idea of delivering the speech. As a solution, Gray said Bush instructed him to call then assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, Brad Reynolds, at the Justice Department and to have Reynolds call Bush and ask him to speak at the convention. That way, explained Gray, Bush would be able to appease his staff by telling them it was actually the Justice Department who wanted him to speak before the Federalist Society.
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