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Bush is one of a half dozen Texas politicos caught up in what appears to be an influence-buying scandal. Half a dozen legislators and Texas Attorney General John Cornyn are accused of taking action to block the Texas Funeral Service Commission's investigation into funeral-home giant Service Corporation International.

After a May 1998 meeting in Bush's office between SCI CEO Robert Waltrip and Allbaugh -- and possibly Bush -- the Funeral Service Commission completed no more inspections of SCI's facilities, and the agency's general counsel quit. In February 1999, commission Executive Director Eliza May was fired. A few months later, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed a bill to reorganize the agency and strip it of its general counsel position. (The bill's sponsor received more campaign funds from SCI than anyone in the Texas House.) The Legislature also forced out the agency's current chairman, Dick McNeil, a Fort Worth funeral director who had approved the investigation into SCI's operations.

May has sued the state over her firing; it is in that lawsuit that Bush received his subpoena. So far, the issues in May's suit have been ignored by the mainstream media. But as soon as May's lawyers get permission to depose Bush, and they probably will, the issue of influence buying will be put clearly in focus. And what started out as a simple investigation into a few funeral homes in Dallas last year could become a major issue in Bush's push for the White House.

Bush's lawyers will file a motion to quash the subpoena in an effort to avoid an unwanted distraction for the Texas governor during his drive for the presidency. "Gov. Bush was not involved in this case and has no personal knowledge of the facts in this case," says his spokeswoman, Linda Edwards.

But on July 9, attorneys representing May subpoenaed Bush. The deposition has been scheduled for Aug. 26, but it's unclear if Bush will actually be deposed on that date.

May's lawsuit, filed March 23, alleges that state officials and SCI's Waltrip worked to thwart an investigation by the Funeral Service Commission into SCI's embalming practices. It also alleges May was fired in February because she reported violations of the law. Last year, under May's direction, the agency began investigating two of SCI's Dallas-area funeral homes, which were allegedly operating without proper licenses. The investigation ultimately led the agency to recommend a fine of $445,000 be levied against SCI, the world's largest funeral company. So far, the company hasn't been required to pay a dime and the matter is still pending.

Adding intrigue to the lawsuit are a conflicting set of documents recently issued by SCI's lawyers. On June 11, Waltrip's lawyers issued documents that say Waltrip talked with Bush on April 15, 1998, in the governor's office about SCI's problems with the state investigators. Five days later, Waltrip's lawyers changed their story.

In a highly unusual "supplemental" response to the interrogatories, the lawyers said Waltrip did not talk to Bush about his problems with state investigators. The supplemental document says that while Waltrip was in Bush's office waiting to talk with Allbaugh, the governor "passed by on the way to a press conference or other appointment," and although Bush "exchanged pleasantries" with Waltrip, their discussion was "not substantive; they did not discuss the content" of a letter Waltrip wrote complaining about the investigation.

Perhaps that's true. But why, then, did SCI's in-house lawyer, Daniel Reat, swear that Waltrip talked to Bush? In a sworn, notarized court statement that accompanied the June 11 interrogatory, Reat said that Waltrip's answers "are either within his personal knowledge or based on information obtained from other persons, and are true and correct."

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