Bush Defends His Business Tenure

Associated Press ^ | Tuesday, July 02, 2002

[Dog Gone]

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- President Bush defended in a snappish tone Tuesday his own business experience with a corporation accused of fishy accounting.

``Everything I do is fully disclosed; it's been fully vetted,'' the president said as he paused to speak with reporters during a church appearance in Wisconsin. ``Any other questions?''

Bush was responding to a journalist who asked for his reaction to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who said in Tuesday's newspaper that Bush's recent campaign against corporate malfeasance draws on ``firsthand experience of the subject.''

Bush, in 1989, was on the board of directors and audit committee of Harken Energy when the company masked $10 million in losses by reporting a profit on the sale of a subsidiary to a group of Harken insiders borrowing money from the company itself.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ruled the transaction phony and forced the company to restate its 1989 earnings. The SEC also investigated Bush for insider trading after he sold nearly $850,000 of Harken stock shortly before its mounting debt was publicly disclosed.

The SEC eventually closed its investigation of Bush without taking action against him, although The Dallas Morning News has quoted a 1993 letter from the SEC to Bush's lawyer emphasizing that its decision ``must in no way be construed as indicating that (Bush) has been exonerated.''

Democrats said those investigations bear close similarities to current-day corporate accounting scandals involving Enron, WorldCom and other business giants that have shaken investor confidence.

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri called the 1989 transactions by Harken and Bush ``very Enron-esque'' and said they were symbolic of how Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, whose former employer Halliburton is also now under SEC investigation, had helped create a business climate ripe for accounting fraud.

Republicans say Democrats are just desperate to make political hay in an election year.

[Dog Gone]

No bias in this story, no siree.

[Dog Gone]

Because until this AP reporter came along, nobody had the gall to so misrepresent what happened. James Carville must have a clone.

[eureka!]

The long knives are being drawn. JC Watts all over the place and now this--part of the DNC/Corporate Accountability project. We ain't seen nothing yet. The Clymers make me sick....

[Prodigal Son]

If this were true, why wasn't it exploded all over the headlines prior to Election Day, 2000?

They'll spin this one off as "it has much more relevance in light of Enron, WorldCom etc".

[Cousin Eddie]

Right. Bush and Cheney created the climate for fraud, even though the fraud was promulgated in the go-go market of the late 90's when they weren't in power.

Nevertheless, demos will pounce and ask for Whitewater type investigations into the aledged insider sale. After all, if the pubies wanted to investidage 12 year old (at the time) land and commodity deals of the Clinton's, why not investigate 12 year old deals of Bush's?

Unfortunately, could get ugly.

[Thisiswhoweare]

Now we see it people. The wealthy don't get that way unless they crush those that made it possible. So much for working hard all your life to attain position/power.

[Dog Gone]

Here's the deal. The factual basis for these allegations is not new. The spin here is new, and the characterization of them is straight out of DU, but the allegations aren't new.

They were made at the time, and they've been dragged out in every political campaign Bush has run since then. Ann Richards tried and failed to make it stick in her race against Bush. It was raised again in 2000, although not to the extent of other mud thrown at him.

They have been thoroughly explored and all the facts are known. There is nothing there.

This is merely the media effort to paint Bush with a Wall Street corruption brush. It may work.

[Vladiator]

It wasn't an AP reporter who asked the question.

It was Adam Clymer.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"Unfortunately, could get ugly."

Maybe, but not for long.

Americans are weary, it's been a tough year. Congress should do its job and accomplish something contructive.

IMO, there's very little patience beyond the Beltway for Carville style attacks---especially on the president.

[Vladiator]

Now we see it people. The wealthy don't get that way unless they crush those that made it possible. So much for working hard all your life to attain position/power.

Bush sold a money losing oil services company to a larger oil services company while his dad was president, and then cashed out to the tune of almost a million dollars.

[gaspar]

Are you sure it was Clymer who asked? That would make it a new low in incestuousness at the New York Times.

[Miss Marple]

It works if we don't speak up. I have a friend who lurks here and reads a lot of articles. She called me this afternoon and told me her boss (a Gore supporter) started in about Wall Street and "your boy George and his business cronies." Because of what she read here she calmly said. "Gee, most of these folks, who made their fortunes during the Clinton Administration, were democrat donors and fundraisers."

The boss lady shut up and went away. Ha!

We need to be writing letters, calling talk radio, and speaking out about this. I am outraged that the Rats are trying to blame Clinton's cronies' malfeasance on President Bush. I will not let it stand.

It only takes a call, an e-mail, a letter, a response. Everyone needs to help out with this, because it is the new Rat plan and I want to TAKE BACK THE SENATE!!

[DrLiberty]

This story of Bush's dubious business affairs was reported, but it wasn't made an issue since the SEC covered for him, no doubt due to Daddy's pull. Dont forget that before Harken Energy hit the fan, Junior and the other top execs also got big loans to them forgiven by the company.

Cheney has his own problems stemming from Haliburton's chicanery during his term of office there.

This has been festering for a long time, and the recent Enron/Worldcom/Adelphia/Xerox/Global Crossing fiascos are not only going to bring down the economy til God knows when, they are going to be ties to Repubs Bush and Cheney because of their past misdeeds. That's what we as Repubs get for laying back down again with the Bush crime family...will we ever learn? Pat Buchanan should have been supported by the GOP, as he more fully reflected the true GOP belief, but no one would stand for him, because the media and commiecrats smeared him. This is what we get for making compromises: AL Gore in 2004 and Hillary in 2008. Once again the Bushes destroy the GOP.

[daler]

Gee. I thought he was dumb.

[DrLiberty]

I can see the Demo ads already:

Bush's face angrily denouncing the Worldcom et al folks, as his face morphs into Ken Lay's and all the other CEO criminals. Ditto Cheney with Haliburton, all the while they use Bush/Cheney words of how we must restore honor and decency to the White House.

The Dems are going to have the hearts of the 401K losers and the victims of the corporate go-go manipulators. And the swing vote. Nobody is going to tie this to Clinton. Its way too late for that now. If the GOP hadn't been cowering about what Clinton had on them and had revealed EVERYTHING about what Slick Willie and the Dems were doing, that would have been different, but patriots, like Dan Burton for example, are few and far between.

Again, this is what you get when you compromise.

[Brilliant]

Of course it was not an exoneration. It was the Clinton SEC. The Clinton SEC would NEVER exonerate Bush of anything.

[marajade]

Oh please... Don't you think that if Clinton could have found something, he'd have done something because of Gore?

[marajade]

I mean do people really want someone elected as President who has only ever worked for the government?

[gramho12]

Puke!