Howard Dean's Secret Enron Tax Breaks

EIB ^ | 12-12-03 | Rush Limbaugh

[jmstein7]

Not long ago I referenced the amazing phenomenon of Doctovernor Howard Dean sealing his political records from Vermont. Why the secrets? Where's the left screaming about the public's "right to know"? Dean has refused to come clean to the point where the thing is going before a judge. Dean hasn't even bothered to hide the motives for his unprecedented secrecy, telling NPR in January: "There are future political considerations. We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavors." In the audio link below, you can hear Dean shoot back that he'll release his records if President Bush releases his. It's the kind of angry, conspiratorial attack that's made Dean the darling of the Bush-hating left - it's also 100%, totally untrue. (Liberals like that too.) In fact, getting Bush's records is as easy as going to the Attorney General of Texas. Claims that Bush sealed his records "at his daddy's library" are off the mark. That being said, now that President Bush has shown us his, will you show us yours, Dr. Dean?

I actually named Dr. Dean as one of my physicians, thus ensuring his records would be seized immediately. I did so because Michael Kranish gave us an indication of just what Dean's hiding in the Boston Globe: "[D]uring Dean's 11 years as Vermont governor, he enacted tax breaks that attracted to the state a 'Who's Who' of corporate America - including Enron - to set up insurance businesses. Indeed, Dean said in 2001 that he wanted Vermont to 'overtake Bermuda' as the 'world's largest' haven for a segment of the insurance industry known as 'captives'..."

More: "With little notice then - and barely any mention now in the Democratic presidential campaign - Dean succeeded in turning Vermont into the kingdom of captives. Vermont has more of these companies than the other 49 states combined. As part of the enticement, Dean led efforts to cut state taxes of such companies, and he helped defeat a Clinton administration effort that would have eliminated $100 million worth of federal tax deductions given to the industry." So while Dean spouts Clintonian rhetoric against corporate welfare, he protected such perks in his tiny state of 600,000.

Furthermore, Howard Dean - who's running with a promise to re-regulate everything from the media to energy - slashed every regulation he could reach to woo these megacorps. Dean and his entire party are out there screaming about the big tax breaks that Bush and the boys give to Enron and Halliburton, yet he tried to set up the Granite State as a landlocked Bermudian tax haven! No wonder Dean is willing to go to court to keep those records sealed. Can you imagine what his fringe, kook liberal base would say if they got found out about these tax breaks to the corporations they hate? The acrid stench you smell is that of liberal hypocrisy. Go ahead and crack a window.

[AmishDude]

Be very careful with these records. I would not be surprised if Dean doesn't want these released during the primaries because they indicate a few policies that are not so favorable for the Left. But for the general election, they'll make him look positively right-wing.

Well, not really, but close enough for government work.

[Vermonter]

yet he tried to set up the Granite State as a landlocked Bermudian tax haven!

While Rush is seldom wrong, he needs to give his fact checker a rap on the knuckles.

Vermont is the Green Mountain State.

New Hampshire is the Granite State

[Steven W.]

But for the general election, they'll make him look positively right-wing.

this is continuing liberal spin that the likes of Gloria Borger have swallowed whole and now just keep regurgitating. The whole premise is doubtful and unlikely. For example, the same folks tout Dean as supposedly fiscally conservative because he didn't have to raise taxes much after the deceased governor he followed into office jacked them up as high as the eye could see.

[Vermonter]

Yes, but the prior Republican Governor (Dick Snelling, who died in office) was attempting to clean up the mess left by his predecessor , Madeline Kunin (D) who nearly bankrupted the state funding her social policies.

[My2Cents]

I think we should take the heat off of Dean until he has the DimRAT nomination sewn up. I'd hate for mainline Democrats to wake up to the fact that Dean is a loose cannon, giving them time to salvage the nomination for someone else.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Howard Dean has crossed the Rubicon. Anyone who thinks otherwise is at least a danger to themselves.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

It's the kind of angry, conspiratorial attack that's made Dean the darling of the Bush-hating left - it's also 100%, totally untrue.

He's stark, raving, Dean.

[Calpernia]

Just got to wonder where and how John Haley fit in and what he knew.


Ark. Plane Crash Kills Whitewater Lawyer
AP ^ | 12/04/03 | AP

HARRISON, Ark. (AP) - A lawyer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge
filed by Whitewater prosecutors died Thursday when the small plane he was
piloting crashed while trying to land at an airport, officials said.

John Haley, 72, who was once the personal lawyer of former Arkansas Gov. Jim
Guy Tucker, had recently joined a new law firm. A partner, Peter B. Heister,
confirmed Haley's death.
>>>>

I don't know if you have been following all the investigations that are
landing near Hillary lately, ie., campaign finance and the Anthony Pellicano
tapes.

But take a look at this below. See John Haley? Enron is under SEC investigation, obviously.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26550

Excerpt:

Ex-Im [Export-Import] Bank board members during the Clinton years include Jackie Clegg, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Maria Haley, a former aide to Clinton in Little Rock and ex-wife of John Haley, who was convicted in the Whitewater investigation.
Dodd served as co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton appointed Clegg vice chair of the Ex-Im Bank board in June 1997.

Haley has ties to the crooked Riady family who operate the Lippo Group out of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Riadys ran afoul of federal bank regulators after they took control of the Worthen Bank in Little Rock in the 1980s. Haley's long-time law partner, Mark Grobmyer, a Clinton golfing buddy, is a Lippo lobbyist.

While at Ex-Im Bank, documents show Haley OK'd federal loans for Indonesian projects worth more than $40 billion, including many involving Lippo and its subsidiaries.

Clinton replaced her on the board with Vanessa Weaver, who was forced by the Senate Banking Committee to recuse herself from Lippo transactions after a 1999 Investor's Business Daily story exposed her close ties to Lippo executive John Huang.

Both Huang and James Riady have since been convicted of fraud relating to Clinton-Gore fund-raising.

Two Enron executives -- Joseph Sutton and Rebecca McDonald -- have served on the Ex-Im Bank's advisory committee.

[AmishDude]

Oh, I don't buy that Howard-Dean-is-right-wing-because-he-didn't-start-a-Communist-revolution tripe. But there may be a decision or two that makes him look positively rational.

[OldFriend]

Not a single one of Dean's supporters care a bit about the facts of tax breaks for evil corporations. He's their guy and can do no wrong.

[onyx]

Dang, you're smart! Your comment mirrors my thinking. Does that make me smart also?

[Vinnie]

I think we should take the heat off of Dean until he has the DimRAT nomination sewn up.

Agree. We dribbled stuff out about the Clintons all wrong.
By the time it counted, election time, the public had been 'inoculated' and it was old news.

[My2Cents]

My recollection was that it was Clinton who dribbled stuff out about himself, so that when the Republicans got around to making the charges, the Clinton campaign was able to say, "That's old news..."

[My2Cents]

We're both smart. I'm just faster than you. :-)

[Born Conservative]

[b4its2late]

More and more stuff will come out whether his records stay sealed or not.....