Bushies Bail in Mid-Radio Interview at Mention of Rubin Charges

NewsMax.com ^ | 8/13/02 | Carl Limbacher and Crew

[NormsRevenge]

Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2002 5:03 p.m. EDT

Bushies Bail in Mid-Radio Interview at Mention of Rubin Charges

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill ran afoul of President Bush's "new tone" policy Tuesday afternoon, forcing them to bail out midway through a national radio interview rather than criticize former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for possible Enrongate influence peddling.

Card and O'Neill were being interviewed simultaneously by nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity, who reached the two administration officials at President Bush's economic summit in Waco, Texas.

The exchange went like this:

HANNITY: Let me ask you one last question before you go. Robert Rubin, one of your predecessors, made a call to Peter Fischer, who works for you, and asked Fischer to intervene with the independent credit rating agencies to help Enron's credit rating stay artificially high.

Do you know anything else about this call - and whether Rubin or one of his associates made any other calls to your department? And what do you think of Joe Lieberman and Carl Levin refusing to call Rubin to testify and explain his call to your department?

O'NEILL: Sean, I've got to go do another interview.

HANNITY: You can't answer that question?

O'NEILL: Talk to you again. Thanks. Bye.

HANNITY: You want to answer that, Andy?

CARD: Well, you know, it's a great tendency in politics to want to go back and play the blame game. And that's not what this president's about. He's looking for ... (line goes dead)

HANNITY: Yeah, you there? I guess we just got cut off. (To producer) Did you hit the wrong line? You did? I guess we just lost them. Alright, well. Just when I'm getting to the good stuff. Don't you hate that. It's driving me nuts. Maybe if we can get them back, we'll try. (End of Excerpt)

O'Neill and Card, needless to say, never called back.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals

[Moonman62]

What Rubin did, as a private citizen, IS suspicious and IS being looked into.

True, but Rubin was just out of office as a prominent government official, and he is still a prominent Rat. They'll look into his crime and ignore it because he's a famous Rat, the same way Reno used to look into probable crimes. Why do you think O'Neill and Card avoided the question?

[nopardons]

She owned quite a lot ; I don't recall the exact amount. You want be to see if I can find the exact number ? I do ; however , know, that she got $ 227,000 from her sale of those stocks, which she sold on December 27th ... the same day, that Waksal's daughter sold the 5 million dollar's worth, that Sam had just signed off to her, because he couldn't sell any more shares. This was, I believe, PRIOR to the announcement to the public !

[Moonman62]

She owned quite a lot ; I don't recall the exact amount.

I found the exact amount. She owned 3,928 shares. The stock went down $8.79 on the day of the announcement. You're counting the entire value of the shares. I'm counting what she saved with the insider information, which was $34,527.12 not counting commissions. Once the news became public, she no longer benefitted from insider information.

She hasn't been convicted, but the punishment should fit the crime if she's guilty. Pay restitution, pay a fine and court costs, and probably be suspended from corporate governance for a period of time. Still my point is the government wastes thousand more times that on an average day. The problem with our economy isn't fraud. It's the lack of growth policies coming out Washington, and a failure to hold the proper culprits like Greenspan and Rubin (when he was in office) accountable.

[lavaroise]

Of mice and men...

These people are so gutless. Why don't they take a drink, feel like a lion and spill the beans. Lame cheesey bull sh1T

[MissAmericanPie]

The most telling thing that leads to speculation about back room collusion is the silence of Republicans and Democrats on vote fraud. The Democrats only screamed about it because they were caught red handed, and when caught red handed the guilty scream loudest about the bad situation and point fingers at the other guy.

[SamBees]

Thats so true. The GOP has no desire to unearth all the dead from the clinton era. Its as if it never happened.

So, like OJ, Clinton walks free.

[flamefront]

OK, Hannity may have hit the button -- very interesting, thank you!

Now, let's go back and cut out the fact the phone was disconnected. Rereading the discussion without the cut-off does not change the facts.

Both O'Neill and Card wished to intentionally drop the Rubin subject. No BS there. Go figure.

[harpo11]

Begin thumping bump!

[harpo11]

"If the Democrats advance in November, the following two years will be tough indeed. It's up to us to pressure our own political party to shape up, or else there will be plenty of shrapnel for us all. There's still time, and it's good that this forum is trying to keep our elected officials "honest".

Amen.