Posted on 07/12/2002 2:06:05 AM PDT by kattracks
THE DOMINANT SUBJECT at President Bush’s rare press conference Monday evening was not new corporate scandals that threaten America’s capitalist economy. It was a 12-year-old stock sale by private citizen George W. Bush. That caused a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official, who long ago gave Bush a clean bill of health, to ponder the wondrous ways of Washington.
That official was not, as National Public Radio suggested Tuesday morning, then Republican SEC Chairman Richard Breeden (appointed by the elder President George Bush). It was SEC enforcement chief William McLucas, now a partner in one of Washington’s most prestigious law firms — and a Democrat. He recently produced the report that revealed the Enron scandal. McLucas told me, “I can see no reason” to replay his 1990 Bush inquiry.
The reason, of course, is partisan politics. Corporate frauds stretching from Enron to WorldCom, which have destroyed investor confidence and undermine the economy, do threaten a political opening against the Republicans and Bush. Nevertheless, Democrats could not resist trying to exploit the President’s personal conduct by resurrecting an obscure stock transaction.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called Bush’s handling of his stock transaction “illustrative of the permissive environment and this attitude about business that is very destructive and very disconcerting to many of us.” The news media ate it up, peppering Bush with no fewer than nine questions in Monday’s news conference.
Actually, the story is straightforward — lacking the mysterious twists of Whitewater. In 1990, Bush was out of the oil business and raising money to buy a share of the Texas Rangers baseball team. A board member of Harken Energy Corp., Bush sold $848,000 of the company’s stock two months before the company reported millions of dollars in losses, which sharply dropped its stock price after the sale.
Was this insider trading? That’s what the SEC set out to investigate a dozen years ago (probably triggered by media accounts, according to McLucas’s recollection). As a Republican appointee, Breeden wanted no personal part of this and instructed McLucas to charge ahead without fear or favor. McLucas does not remember talking to Breeden, but was well aware that they were investigating the President’s son.
That made no difference at the SEC, which had not been impeded in the investigation of President Jimmy Carter’s good friend Bert Lance and other well-connected targets. A compelling fact was that the Harken stock actually was selling for more at the time of investigation than it was when Bush sold it. That’s hardly a good case for insider trading, particularly when no “material non-public information” by Bush was found. The case was closed. The final sentence in the SEC’s order saying that Bush was not “exonerated” was legalistic “boilerplate” and meaningless, said McLucas.
The major new accusation against Bush has been that he was eight months late filing a confirming report of the stock sale, though he earlier had alerted the SEC as required by law. The tardy report was in McLucas’s hand when he ruled. “If you went to court against every late filing with us,” McLucas told me, “we would be in court on 2,000 cases.”
Whatever Willie McLucas says is credible. After more than 21 years at the SEC, he joined the big-time Washington firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He was secured by Enron as chief investigator in the internal inquiry that brought down the energy firm’s house of cards. Now, with the disclosure of hiding $3.9 billion, WorldCom has signed McLucas to conduct an independent investigation.
When Bush the elder was running for reelection as President in 1992, the venerable Democratic Rep. John Dingell requested a SEC briefing about the stock sale but did not hit sufficient pay dirt to go public. Texas Gov. Ann Richards, desperate in resisting the junior Bush’s challenge in 1994, raised the issue — to no avail. The case came up briefly when Bush ran for reelection for governor in 1998 and for President in 2000.
Despite these failures, Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe could not resist attacking Bush’s personal conduct as payback for the treatment of his patron, Bill Clinton. The irony is that serious threats to the economy offer incomparably richer opportunities for the Democratic opposition.
Robert D. Novak is a Washington political columnist and commentator on CNN.
A new survey shows the President's popularity unscathed despite a barrage of artillery and cannon fire over corporate sleaze from tooth-and-nail opponents and the media.Both on his handling of the War and his job overall, the President draws a chorus of thunderous applause and praise from Americans still buoyed up about him and unvexed despite the tawdry sludge, the daily muck and filth being flung at him by draggled-tailed harlots in the media.
Viva Bush!, Americans cry out, much to the bitter chagrin of fille de joie hussies at CNN.
For Bush's scowling, froth-at-the-mouth, stink-in-the-nostrils arch-foes, who see him as the Prince of Darkness incarnate, a demon in human form, cloven feet and all, the latest CBS/New York Times poll is a bitter, poison pill to swallow, indeed.
Despite the media crusade to crucify the President on the cross of corporate scandal, a whopping 74% of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, which, adding insult to injury, is actually up 4% points from their previous, June poll, when Dan Rather, renowned liar and bell boy for Hillary Clinton, flushed triumphant at Bush's then 7%-point 'drop' from their May survey.
Yes, you heard it right, folks: Bush is even more widely admired and liked after weeks of full-tilt, red-hot cannonade from assailants who thought they'd found the silver bullet.
You could hear the shrieks of agony, the wails of woe and gnashing of teeth at DNC Central, as Terry McAuliff, whimpering and mewling, dons sackcloth and ashes.
Rankled that his hate campaign has come-a-cropper, little Terry, exacerbated, embittered, rends the air at the top of his lungs: 'How in [expletive] could Smirk be more popular after Harken, WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing, Qwest?! It makes no sense whatsoever! What the heck is going on?!! Don't people believe Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings anymore?! They say Bush is a crook, so why don't the sheeple fall in line?'
Approval of Bush's handling of the economy, despite the blues on Wall Street, remains steady, at 56%, unchanged from a month ago. Indeed, a majority of Americans rate the condition of the economy as 'fairly good', a minuscule 12% rate it 'very bad'.
Asked whether they think the "stock market will go up or down" in the "next year or so", a staggering 60% said yes, up from only 49% last August. Only 26% are bearish, which is down 8% points from last summer.
Regarding the President personally, asked if they "trust George W. Bush to do the right thing when it comes to regulating business to prevent ... abuses from taking place", a sky-high 59% say they trust him, only 34% disagree.
Democrats must be up in arms tonight.
The new poll numbers underscore the difficulty for hatemongers like McAuliff in their belligerent appeal to arms, their kindle-the-torch-of-war crusade to arouse hatred towards a President, not only wildly popular, but highly esteemed, highly regarded, whose plain, down-home, down-to-earthness humility has roused the favor of folks from all walks of life.
President Bush connects with Americans, his rapport with the people transcends party, race, ethnicity, gender -- even religion. The chemistry is real, the esprit de corps bond is honest-to-goodness. Despite the media/Democrat campaign to batter the President to pieces, to stir up dissension, to sow divisions in the camp, the public today is more resolved, more determined than ever to win the War on Terror.
Given their failure, will the media beat a retreat, bite the dust and draw in their horns?
With elections just around the corner, not likely.
But, from these polls, one thing has grown abundantly clear: The media's ability to bring down a President is vastly over-rated.
Anyway, that's....
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
What makes you think the press is interested in truthful reporting?
Its the effect they're after - 3 or 4 months of daily use of this word in conjunction with the Bush administration and folks will believe 'scandal' is Bush's middle name.
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