Lott: Blame Clinton, Not Bush, for Corporate Scandals

NewsMax.com ^ | Wednesday July 17, 2002 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[fortress]

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., fired a warning shot Wednesday at Democrats who insist President Bush is to blame for the recent wave of corporate scandals, suggesting that Republicans could easily make the case that President Clinton is far more responsible.

"If there's been any permissiveness that's been involved, any kind of inappropriate conduct that has become acceptable - are they missing the Clinton administration?" Lott complained, in an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity.

The top Senate Republican warned against the continued political finger pointing, but once again suggested Clinton was to blame.

"There's no good sense, in my opinion, in trying to point back and say, 'Well, OK, Clinton created an atmosphere that led to this sort of thing,'" he explained. "It was the excesses, if you will, of the 90's that led to this."

With his comments to Hannity, Lott becomes the highest ranking Republican to expressly blame Clinton for the business scandals.

While President Bush said on Monday that the 1990's Wall Street bubble was the result of a stock-buying "binge" that left the nation saddled with a "hangover," he never specifically mentioned his predecessor.

When Bush was asked directly at a press conference last week whether Clinton was responsible for the corporate corruption, he responded tersely, "No."

A majority of Americans, however, disagree - with 51 percent of those surveyed telling CNN/USA Today/Gallup pollsters last week that Clinton's "moral failings in office" encouraged businessmen to behave unethically.

Sen. Lott warned Hannity's audience that there's a hidden agenda behind efforts to gin up stories about corporate corruption.

"What the Democrats want is to use this as an occasion to have more government controls, more mandates and more taxes," he said. "That's what's really going on here."

[fortress]

Wow! The GOP is finally fighting back. I especially like what he said: "What the Democrats want is to use this as an occasion to have more government controls, more mandates and more taxes," he said. "That's what's really going on here."

[goldstategop]

And did Trent "Gutless Wonder" Lott and his GOP colleagues vote against the government's trying to micromanage and second guess decisions made in our nation's business boardrooms? You gotta wonder how he can blame Clinton when he can't even stand up to the Tommy Daschund and "Profits Are Eeevil" Rat brigadoons in the Senate.

[TUX]

Maybe Sen. Lost has found his backbone.

[AGreatPer]

Lott must have found his cohoonas for one night. Quick honey, tonight's the night.

[doug from upland]

TRENT LOTT, SHUT THE F UP! YOU HAD A CHANCE TO NAIL SINKMASTER WITH LIVE WITNESSES AND DESTROY HIS RAT PALS BUT REFUSED TO DO SO. YOU ARE A SPINELESS WIMP, AND BECAUSE OF YOU WERE ARE STILL BURDENED WITH CLINTON. GO AWAY, YOU YELLOW-BELLIED PUKE!

[fortress]

OK. OK. I see how it is.
But, I thought this was news.
Never mind.

[fortress]

That is funny

[LasVegasMac]

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., fired a warning shot..

Trent...Trent who?

Oh yea, that spineless whimp that used to be the Majority Leader.

Sheeez, he is still around? I thought he went to bed.

Anyway, I'm sure the DemoRats are absolutely shaking in their boots from his menacing words.

Note to Trent: go back to planting two-lips.

We need a person with a backbone. Sorry, go home, Trent.

LVM

[Digger]

AND GW HAD HIS CHANCE TO EXPOSE THE KLINTOONS BUT HE CHOSE TO LET THEM OFF SO THEY CAN HAUNT AMERICA FOR YEARS TO COME. Sorry Doug, but everytime I hear GW say that there are consequences to actions I lose it.

[isthisnickcool]

Lott must be pretending he is head cheerleader again.

Pom-Pom - Flip - Flip - Splits......

[Skybird]

Trent Lott...you're nothing but a spineless, scum-sucking coward. You'll always be remembered for "putting the fix in" for the impeachment trial. Go away!

[AdA$tra]

I don't know about you, but I feel better now.

[Brimack34]

It seems to me President Bush was the only one not here in the 90's!! So to blame him and not the Congress and Corporations is just stupid.

[budman_2001]

Bump for #5. A winner!

[Digger]

I do want to go on record as stating that both GW & Cheney are innocent IMO of any corruption with regards to these allegations. So why don't they act that way? What pressures them to cowtow to the socialist/commie pols & media? Something's not right here. Are these guys compromised?

[fortress]

Finally a calm person on this thread!

It does seem pretty ridiculous to blame GW for this situation, but it doesn't stop the Dems. They rather see the economy tank further than actually do something about it, like cutting taxes and encourage business developement.

[fortress]

Rush had a pretty good monologue about Haliburton the other day and it all sounds pretty harmless.
But you're right they ought to speak up for themselves more forcefully.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Lott may get a call from the White House telling him to cool it, because he's violating the "new tone".

[fortress]

I hope they are rethinking their tactics, since they are now personally being attacked by the Dems.
I hope they have learned by now that they can't negotiate with the Liberals; we need to defeat them.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I suspect they know what you say. But I also think they have been exhaustively focus group-ing and polling internally -- and probably what has shown up is that most tuned-out voters, and probably a solid majority of female voters, are very upset about political "bickering" and "divisiveness". And they probably think that they are better off in elections by not taking part in that, no matter how many times, how fraudulently, and how virulently the RATS sling mud at them.

They're probably also worried about taking off the gloves now, knowing that the RATS have been just waiting for them fire back in order to "shame" them for "hypocritically" carrying on the "bad tone" that they complained about.

Sometimes you just get hemmed in by your own words.

That's why I always hated this "new tone" take on the Clinton garbage. Should have called a spade a spade and just said that Clinton was a perverted, low-rent burglar rather than creating this euphemistic "new tone" stuff to alude to him.