Posted on 07/08/2002 11:47:06 PM PDT by kattracks
A Martian visiting Earth for the first time Monday would have come away from this afternoon's presidential press conference with the clear impression that America's fate hangs on one issue: President Bush's sale of Harken Energy stock 12 years ago.
Fully 40 percent of reporters' questions during the first presidential press conference in months dealt with the Harken deal, a 1990 transaction in which the stock Bush sold plummeted months later, only to rebound after he'd cashed in his chips.
Still, despite the fact that Bush's sale cost him half the profits he might have realized, critics in the press, working hand in glove with congressional Democrats, have forced the issue onto center stage.
Of the 20 questions Bush was asked, one dealt with Iraq, another with possible smallpox vaccinations and a third the recent NAACP convention. There were no questions at all about the LAX shooter, whose July Fourth rampage dominated the headlines for days after the attack.
But the press reserved the balance of its curiosity for the wave of corporate scandals Democrats are trying to pin on Bush. Fully eight out of the entire 20 questions asked dealt with Harken Energy.
Contrast the ferocious media interest in the ancient stock sale, which has been vetted repeatedly since Bush first sought office in 1994, with the press reaction to the most shocking allegation ever leveled against a sitting president: Juanita Broaddrick's 1999 accusation that then-President Clinton had brutally raped her when he was Arkansas attorney general.
Clinton was asked exactly twice about the explosive charge, referring reporters both times to his lawyer's carefully worded denial. (Clinton himself never personally contradicted his rape accuser.)
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who recently launched an anti-rape crusade to speed up processing of DNA evidence, has never been asked by reporters about Broaddrick's charge. Not once.
Bush did get one chance to even the score, when a reporter asked Monday if he thought President Clinton had "in some way contributed" to the business scandals - "set a moral tone in any way?"
Bush's one-word answer: "No."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Media Bias
This has to gall them to no end. After all, Bush is, in their estimation, a simpleton. He couldn't possibly have enough smarts to make their moral posturing obvious.
Right on the money, friend.
Repeat often....and contrast this information with the $18 million made by McCauliffe days prior to Global Crossings' bankruptcy.
Not to mention ol' Hillary's AMAZING luck in trading cattle futures !!
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