Posted on 07/29/2002 5:49:38 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
Are Senate Democrats Abusing Investigative Power?
By Gregg Bish
July 29, 2002
It would be a fine thing to believe that the recent stampede to write legislation to protect American investors had been an exercise in congressional protection of the public interest. One is left to wonder whether any of this would have come to pass, if this had not been a mid term election year, and if there were not a Republican President, and a Republican majority in the House. It is equally unlikely that any of this would have come to pass if there were not vulnerable Republican politicians who could be made the target of the investigative pen.
Much has been said about the Republican connections to big business throughout this debacle. President Bush has been tarred for selling stock in Harken Energy shortly before the release of an unfavorable quarterly report. All indications so far have been there was no wrongdoing, but the opportunity was seized to the full extent possible for the benefit of political gain. Vice President Dick Cheney heretofore considered one of the most stalwart and respectable members of the Bush White House staff, and a man of unimpeachable integrity, has been tarred for selling his stock in Haliburton. It was immediately forgotten by the press and the public alike that Cheney sold the stock under immense public pressure during the campaign to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest and impropriety. The political opportunity was seized, however, and the damage done. Cheney has been neutralized as a political asset during this current election, who would otherwise have been a great benefit to the Republican Party. Elsewhere, Democratic House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt boasted his belief that the Democrats could pick up as many as forty seats in the House as a result of the relationship between Republicans and business "if things turn out right".
Political pundits have used this opportunity to create the impression that the Presidents image is faltering, citing a recent drop in polling numbers. While poll numbers are still higher than those cited by Democrats as a cause to forego impeachment during the Clinton Lewinski scandal of the nineties, the numbers have indeed dropped. The Presidents team, and the Republican Party, has indeed been hurt by this activity.
The American people have been harmed more, far more, however. This activity has taken on the tone of a political witch-hunt intended not to root out the problems of corporate America, but to devastate and smear political opponents. Largely in the Senate, but where possible in the House of Representatives, Democrats have used the investigative authority of their office to slant the course of investigations NOT to root out corporate wrongdoers, but to create political advantage, at a cost to the American people.
It was revealed recently that incumbent Senator John Corzine (D-NJ) was CEO of the investment trading company Goldman Sachs at a time the firm allegedly engaged in a practice of laddering IPOs to inflate stock prices in the NASDAQ during the now burst "tech bubble". Nary a word was said by Senate investigators. Nowhere to be seen were press conferences by Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle (D. SD) expressing "grave concerns" about Senator Corzine's knowledge of events. Nowhere to be seen was House Minority Leader Gephardt asking what Corzine "knew, when he knew it, and what was done". It was suggested by some that this practice at Sachs Goldman was responsible for the entire tech bubble phenomenon, leading to devastating loss of equity and wealth, yet nothing was done by Senate investigators bent on "rooting out" corporate bad guys.
This past week, when it was discovered that former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles was a board member at Merck Pharmaceuticals, currently accused of inflating revenues by $12 billion, Senate investigators declined to call Mr. Bowles to account. Mr. Bowles is also under scrutiny for allegedly costing Connecticut retirees $100 million while a managing partner of investment bank Forstman Little.
And most recently, former Clinton Secretary of Treasury Rubin was discovered to have tried to intervene with the Bush administration to attempt to stove up Enron's credit rating with Wall Street credit rating companies when those ratings were about to be downgraded. When asked whether Secretary Rubin would be called to account, Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D) responded "I'd rather go to the top (of Chase Manhattan and Citigroup)". Should this be interpreted as "I'd rather leave the Democratic political figures out of the picture?"
The American market is more than a trading floor. It's the repository of the hopes and dreams of hundreds of millions of American and international investors who, having accumulated some small amount of money, have looked to American corporations as a haven to grow their resources as they prepare for retirement. The conduct of these businesses is expected to be above reproach, unimpeachable. The people investing are not only Americans, Europeans, Asians, Africans, but also Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Socialists, coming from every walk of life, and of every political stripe. It is unconscionable, and inexcusable, that a government body such as the US Senate should stoop to using a public embarrassment and crisis of confidence as an excuse to further their political ambitions at the expense of the people, not just of this country, but of every nation in the world. Yet this is quite precisely what has happened, as the search for vulnerable political and business leaders by Senate investigators has turned into a political expedient to gain votes, and House seats. This is not doing the people's business. This is exploitation. This is abuse of power. This is wrong.
It is equally unbelievable that Senate Democrats have the cheek to believe that voters will reward their arrogance by returning them to control this fall. We can only hope the American people can see through this thick Potomac River Valley fog.
Folks, if it's the last thing we do, we're going to force the Democrats to bring Robert Rubin before presidential wannabe Joe Lieberman's Senate committee. Rubin was Clinton's treasury secretary. He was in power when all this crazy buying and corporate scandalizing happened. Have you heard anything about Rubin's employer Enron lately? No! It's the first, and perhaps the worst, of all these scandals, right?
Yet about all we've had is Gephardt going down to Houston and making up stories about how people down there can't afford dialysis now because Enron screwed them out of their health care. All we've had is that out-and-out lie - as we learned from one of the attendees at that meeting. I've been telling you for months, months, months that Joe Lieberman is stonewalling the Enron hearings in his committee precisely because they will not call Robert Rubin.
Rubin arranged arranged loans for Enron that allowed them to continue the illusion that they were making money and profit. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) was set up by a comment in a column by Mark Levin, the EIB Legal Advisor from the Landmark Legal Foundation, on this exact topic. CNN's Lou Dobbs cited Mark's column in asking Senator Levin something like: Why don't you call Rubin to testify? He has the answers you seek. The ample-eyebrowed senator said that Rubin wasn't senior enough.
Not senior enough? He was the treasury secretary! Don't insult our intelligence, sir. The reason you won't call Rubin is because he's a Democrat. That's why I told you from the get-go that the Democrats in charge of the Senate would not look into Enron, because it's going to lead right to the Clinton administration and Bob Rubin. Everyone's looking to place blame on this phony boom, but they refuse to even talk to the chief suspect!
The press just decided, as Andrew Sullivan writes, to let Rubin tell whatever absurd story he wants without even questioning him about all this. It's amazing! The SEC and the press have investigated Bush's Harken transactions for years and found nothing, and it's still being talked about. Yet Rubin's conduct has not been investigated at all! Bush was given a clean bill of health. Rubin has not even gotten an exam.
Rubin propped up this phony boom all throughout the 90s when profit-to-earnings ratios were way escalated. It was Rubin who kept talking up the market while Greenspan was out there warning about "irrational exuberance." Rubin told people that a sick market was fine, that you should keep pouring your savings into it, that the business cycle had been "defeated" by Clinton and there would never be another downturn.
That's the way I look at this. Rubin pulled his own Enron on the American investment community, and called the Bush administration to try and pull strings as that company was collapsing under the weight of its own corruption. And the Democrats are not going to call him? No, they're not, because he's one of their own. They'll protect him and cover up for him - unless there is pressure brought to bear. So let's bring that pressure to bear, America. We deserve and demand answers.
(...demand the GOP reveal Robert Rubin's complicity in the stock market crash)
Call, write, hound Lieberman and Levin until they call Rubin to testify. I called both their offices today. I was told that Levin's team has reviewed over 1M papers and found no reason to call Rubin! LOL I replied that the only reason Rubin isn't being called is because he is a dem; I know it, they know it, we all know it, and it just goes to show that the dems have no interest in getting out the truth.
I also wrote Lott and requested that he make a formal request to Lieberman and Levin, on the senate floor, for an answer as to why they won't call Rubin to testify. Of course, I also made this request last week to my senior senator, but he's a dem, so he wouldn't anyway. Not that I expect Lott to follow-up on this, but hey I gave it a shot.
When did the author get off the boat? This is nothing new for the Democrats. It is precisely what they always do. I am surprised at the shock expressed by the writer.
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