Bush Served on Harken Board During Enron Trades

Yahoo ^ | 10/22/02

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While President Bush (news - web sites) served on Harken Energy Corp.'s board more than 10 years ago, it engaged in complex trades with Enron Corp., a watchdog group said on Tuesday.

Enron's relationship with Bush has become a political issue since its collapse in December amid a widening financial scandal. The company was one of Bush's biggest campaign contributors.

Administration officials say Bush did nothing improper.

The documents, released by the Center for Public Integrity, showed that one of Harken's partners in commodities trading was Enron. A June 1990 memo from Harken Marketing, a Harken subsidiary, listed a $363,000 letter of credit with the now bankrupt energy trader.

White House officials had no comment on the transaction. Harken officials were not immediately available to comment.

The nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity said other documents showed that Bush was paid $80,000 in 1987-88 to consult for Harken even though he was working full time for his father's presidential campaign.

Bush flew to Texas and to New York to attend Harken board meetings. These trips were paid for by his father's campaign, and reimbursed by Harken, the Center said, citing Bush campaign receipts and Harken documents.

White House officials said there was nothing improper about Bush simultaneously working for Harken and his father's campaign.

Bush served on Harken's board from 1986 until 1993.

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay was a longtime Bush ally and a generous donor to his political campaigns. He was part of an elite group known as the "Bush Pioneers" who gathered at least $100,000 in donations for Bush's 2000 run for the presidency.

High-level members of the Bush administration said Lay called asking for help while he fought to keep Enron out of bankruptcy, but they said they did nothing and that the president knew nothing about it.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I never forget Clinton. You were comparing Bush to Clinton. I'm comparing Nixon and Reagan, the way they were jumped on for things that were puny compared to 45,000 tainted blood victims in Canada. I was also comparing the way the GOP treated JFK, Johnson, and Carter to the way the GOP treated Clinton.

All GOP presidents get jumped on. Bush did not do Enron any favors as president. Clinton did. If Bush was tied to Enron in a sleazy way, they could have blackmailed him. That is why there has to be a quid pro quo. You are digging a dry hole.

It makes more sense to assume that GW was a rainmaker for Enron.

I think your viewpoint is based on the assumption that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. It doesn't work that way in a free nation.

[Caipirabob]

This is actually good news.

I mean, is this the best the rats can come up with?

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

You thnk that it is a bribe when a democrate takes on reguardless of whether or not he is a conservative.

The odds are darn good. If a politician says he wants to raise minimal wage, he wants to sue one industry after another, he wants to increase environmental standards, etc.... it all hurts businesses. A business would be crazy to think that guy is its friend. So when a business pays a rat a contribution, it is either due to zealot liberal ideology at the risk of job loss, or more likely, a bribe.

[stalin]

Do you want our policemen and judges to accept bribes as well or is it just our politicains that you want to be corrupt ?

It is a base distortion of the Constitution and an insult to the Founding Fathers to say that bribery or pornography is a form of free speach.

The evidence for bribery is overwhelming. Just look at the budget for a moment. At least 10% can be directly attributable to soft money bribery. The sugar farmers of Florida for example pay Republicans 10 million and democrates 7 million. So , the government gives them 2 billon strait from the treasury , props up sugar prices giving them even more , driving the confection industry out of the country costing tens of thousands of jobs , destroys the Everglades that will cost a minimum of 50 billion more federal dollars to clean up that Bush says he supports.

That is the direct result of soft money bribery.

Look at China. They used to pay soft money bribes directly durring the Clinton admin but they got caught so they switched to bribing through companies that do business with China. They make it very clear that they are the enemy over and over again yet we kiss their a**es every chance we get. It doesn't matter who is in office. What is the trade deficit with China , 40 billion ? They need us more than we need them. They should be kissing our behinds not the other way arround but we can't bribe thier politicians as effectively. That would be illegal in China. So we are the ones doing the grovelling. They pay our politicians to do thier bidding.

The list is endless.

[stalin]

I realize that that lastt post wasn't to you directly. To answer your question ; yes it was. I complain bitterly because I was completely unqualified. I was a science and math teacher. I didn't know what a dangling participle was and I didn't care but they insisted so I did it. I was still young. If I had to do it over again I would have gone to the Union and the school board. Now they don't ever try that crap because they know that I will.

[MEGoody]

Okay, so is there some charge being made here? Or is this just another one of those 'shadowy accusation' things that liberals are so good at because they have nothing of substance.

[MEGoody]

Maybe, but I sure hear a lot of 'shadowy accusations' thrown about by the Dems. They obviously have no support for these accusations or they'd try to impeach him. Believe me, I have heard a few Dems use that word, but there is no 'there' there. Clinton was impeached because he did, indeed, so something wrong. If you think Bush did something wrong, present the facts, not shadowy accusations.

[stalin]

The freedom to bribe is not suposed to be one of our freedoms. The rich are not getting richer at the moment because the stock market bubble burst. Most of their wealth was due to that bubble.

My point was that partisan politics is more important to most politicians than doing the right thing. The Ken Star so-called investigation was legitimat when they were investigating White Water after that they became an anti-American attack on the office of the Presidency , not Clinton. They helped Clinon politically. Even Bush is suffering from it's aftermath.

They should swing for treason along with Clinton.

[stalin]

I think that if Clinton were in office there would have been suport to go after AL Q but not Sadam. It's touch and go as it is. Partisan politics would have meant that a big chunck of the GOP would have cried "Wag the Dog" over the finanial scandals and would not support the war against Sadam. Remember how they were crying wag the dog when Bin Laden blew up our embassies and Clinton launched a few missiles his way ?

Clinton didn't need to wag the dog. His popularity went up durring the Lewisnski scandals and republicans were pissed about that. The last thing that they wanted was a war that would make Clinton even more popular. National secutity didn't enter into it.

Same with Bosnia and Kosovo. If Bush had been in office Republicans would have suported them and democrates would have opposed them. It boils down to partisan politics not American interests.

Some democrats that now opose war with Sadam would be in favor if Clinton were in office but not enouph to swing the decision to giving the pres the green light. That's one reason why it is best that Bush is in office right now. That is if he does what needs to be doen ; what his father failed to do , and occupy Iraq. Just changing the regime could be worse than leaving him in power. We must occupy it and make sure that a pro-American government takes over like we did Germany and Japan.

It seems that many on this site are only interested in whom is in office not whether or not he is doing the right thing.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The freedom to bribe is not suposed to be one of our freedoms.

I see now. You are a campaign finance reformer. I used to be one, myself. It was a phase I went through when I was no longer a liberal and still suspicious of the GOP. Please bear this in mind. Remember when the formerly 'dominant' media kept asking Bush if he ever used cocain? It had some people here very upset that Bush would not answer the question. Nothing ever came of that, did it? The left has trouble finding really bad coverups by conservatives and has to throw out innuendoes or even slanders in order to discredit them.

If you want campaign finance reform, we would follow the same path as England. We would become a socialist state. We would be disarmed. Major legislation would be ramrodded through right after a major tragedy, such as the sniper incident, recently. However, this danger is beginning to wane.

Cash is counting for less-and-less with each election. Ideas and character are counting for more-and-more. That is because we are in the Information Age. This new age will make things better, not worse. We must not have too much tampering with campaign finance-- it is particularly vital right now.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Look at China. They used to pay soft money bribes directly durring the Clinton admin but they got caught so they switched to bribing through companies that do business with China.

And it was illegal.

Too bad the GOP hadn't accepted enough 'bribe money' to get the word out to the American people what was happening.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

You keep talking about money running public opinion. Please ask yourself how much money can control the thoughts of everyone on the internet. Does money run internet public opinion? Or is it Truth that dominates the web? Try to find a forum like this on the liberal side. If you do, please let me know. If they are as successful with newspaper quotes of painting the GOP the way we nailed Clinton, I'll eat my hat.

The Ken Star so-called investigation was legitimat when they were investigating White Water after that they became an anti-American attack on the office of the Presidency , not Clinton.

Starr was a powderpuff, according to very valid newspaper quotes. We were screaming our heads off about it at the FR. He promised to investigate the same way Fiske investigated. Did you ever read 'The Strange Death of Vince Foster' by Chris Ruddy? It's available at many libraries now.

But something that takes much less reading is the strange Ron Brown plane crash. You can see the photos, etc. It's at newsmax.com in the archives. The matter I'm looking into right now is the Tainted Blood Scandal that infected 42,000 Canadians with tainted prison blood.

Despite repeated warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, Arkansas kept its prison plasma program running until 1994, when it became the very last state to cease selling its prisoners' plasma.

In a year when Arkansas scandals dating back to his governorship have returned to haunt Clinton, this one nearly toppled the government -- of Canada. Arkansas' prison-blood business created a health crisis in Canada that nearly brought down the Liberal Party government last spring. At least 42,000 Canadians have been infected with hepatitis C, and thousands more with the HIV virus, thanks to poorly screened plasma. Some of it has been traced back to the Cummins prison in Arkansas. More than 7,000 Canadians are expected to die as a result of the blood scandal. [OVER TWICE THE DEATH TOLL OF THE TWIN TOWERS!!!!]

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/12/cov_23news.html

BTW, Clinton had promoted the Salon web site for years. I guess even Salon couldn't defend him after being bombarded with facts.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Just think, only another week of hearing the name Enron, then any reference to it becomes a back page story. The Dems won't care about it anymore so the media won't either.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Partisan politics would have meant that a big chunck of the GOP would have cried "Wag the Dog" over the finanial scandals and would not support the war against Sadam.

If Bush begins a war the DAY before an impeachment vote, out of the blue, without the traditional military reviews, I would accuse him of wag-the-dog myself! Until you can mention such peculiar timing, I bristle at your ad hominum attempt to make Bush to be a clone of the worst citizen this nation ever had ever produced.

The GOP traditionally supports any war effort led by any president. I challenge you to find anything that remotely resembles a wag-the-dog accusation made by more than a tiny handful of GOP elected officials on any other rat president other than Clinton.

You mentioned Chinagate yourself. How can anyone trust Clinton after Chinagate? After treason like that, it is downright obvious that you must question every action, especially military action. After the Cox Report, Clinton should have resigned. He was found to be a traitor, and was unfit to lead. To NOT question the actions of a traitor is to be a traitor yourself.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The reason the rat leadership shut up about it was because the fingers are pointing to Clinton on Enron. Clinton did them sleazy favors. When Rubin called Bush for more sleazy propping up, Bush refused to. A closer look will expose Clinton, again. LOL.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

This is actually good news. I mean, is this the best the rats can come up with?

My sediments, exactly. Remember that phone call Rubin sent to the Bush administration? Bush said no. That means that Bush is wearing the white hat, yet again, while the Clintonista continue to wear black.

[stalin]

Bribery is not conservative.

The cocaine issue is not part of this discussion. How does it relate to bribery ? I don't care if Bush did cocaine or not. Almost no one did.

Lack of bribery means socialism and disarmament ? What ?! that is kookoo.

Major legislation ( like the farm bill )...is ramrodded through Because of bribery.

Soft money is bribery. That is why we still kiss a** to China among thousands of other stupid things.

Cash is counting for less-and-less with each election. Ideas and character are counting for more-and-more.

that is completely false.

I agrre that we shouldn't tamper with bribery. We should eliminate it.

[stalin]

Ref 72 ; Where do I talk about money running public opinoin ? That's not what I said at all.

Is it truth that dominates the web ? No

I've never tried to find a liberal discussion forum. My guess is that it would be boring.

If they are as successful with newspaper quotes of painting the GOP the way we nailed Clinton, I'll eat my hat.

And just how did "we" nail clinton ? He got away scott free even better than free. It hepled him.

Then you start talking about brown and lane crashes etc. I'm not sure what you are getting at. Clinton was a turd ? Yes ; I agree ? soft money was a big broblem then as well ? yes ; I agree.

you seem to be making my point. We need to get rid of soft money bribery. I agree.

[stalin]

ref 74

Did Clinton attack Bin Laden the day before the impeachment vote as you suggest ? I wasn't aware of that but Bin Laden needed to be attacked reguardless and it didn't change the impeachment vote reguardless.

The GOP traditionally supports any war effort led by any president

That is the main reason that I am a republican. It was very disapointing to see Republicans turning their backs on their country just because we had a turd in office.

How can anyone trust Clinton after Chinagate?

I don't know how anyone could have trusted him before Chinagate. Keep in mind that Clinton's and Bush's policies toward China are virtually identicle.

After treason like that, it is downright obvious that you must question every action, especially military action.

Were you against attacking Bin Laden after he blew up our embassies because of Chinagate ?