[CTRL] Bush Jr.'s Skeleton Closet

[Kris Millegan]

-Caveat Lector-   <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">
</A> -Cui Bono?-

from:
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm
Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm">George W. Bush,
Jr. - The Dark Side</A>
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Lots o' links
Om
K
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Bush Jr.'s Skeleton Closet


Click on the allegation of your choice:
-- Cocaine: felony drug use, vile hypocrisy, and a hushed up arrest?
-- His "young and irresponsible" behavior: sex, drugs and (gasp!) rock and
roll?
-- Thin skinned: Tries to censor his critics
-- Funeralgate: Lying under oath? Bush & staff stop investigation of
contributors huge funeral home company.
-- Character: Spoiled rich kid living off his family's name and reputation
-- What Did YOU Do in the War, Daddy?
-- Made millions on insider business deals, for little work
-- -- Deal #1. Personal Profits from Failing Oil Companies
-- -- -- -- Easy Money From Odd Sources
-- -- -- -- A Surprise Deal From Bahrain
-- -- -- -- Access to the President and National Security Adviser for his
foreign business partner
-- -- Deal #2. Selling Oil Stocks Just Before Iraq Invaded: lucky guess or
illegal insider trading?
-- -- Deal #3. A Big Slice of a Baseball Team
-- -- -- -- Hypocrisy: using government coercion to make his private fortune

-- Texas government corruption: State $$ for campaign funders & business
cronies
-- Quotes

-- Sources

Quotes

"There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of this site, and this guy
is just a garbage man, that's all he is." -- George Jr., discussing a web
site that parodies him
"[Bush Jr. hired a private detective to] determine what his opponents or the
press could find on him [and] isn't terribly thrilled [with the results.]
We're not talking about anything that would get him a spot on Jerry Springer,
no handcuffs or dwarf orgies, but he was a handsome, rich playboy and lived
that life." -- unnamed insider, quoted on MSNBC.
"It's not the governor's role to decide who goes to heaven. I believe that
God decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush." -- George W. Bush, in the
 Houston Chronicle.
"I didn't -- I swear I didn't -- get into politics to feather my nest or
feather my friends' nests." -- Bush Jr., in the Houston Chronicle
"I propose that every city have a telephone number 119 -- for dyslexics who
have an emergency." -- George Junior
"I hope to show Hispanics that Republicans do have a heart, but I also want
to send a message to people from around the country as to how to pick up the
Hispanic vote" -- George Junior
"He told me his brother (Texas Gov. George W. Bush) said he could kick my
butt, and I said I haven't met a Texan yet that can shame me." -- Minnesota
Governor, Navy Seal, and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, quoting Florida
Governor Jeb Bush.
"When George moved back to Midland [after college], he bummed an office, he
bummed golf clubs, bummed shoes. You were lucky if you saw him in a clean
shirt." -- Tom Craddick, ranking Republican in the Texas House of
Representatives and longtime friend of Bush's.
"It's hard to usher in the responsibility era if you behave irresponsibly."
-- Junior, aiming at Clinton but backfiring.
"When it is all said and done, I will have made more money than I ever
dreamed I would make." -- Bush, in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, describing
his Texas Rangers business deal.

Quote Sources


His Character: The Prodigal Son

George W. Bush, Jr. is touted as the savior of the Republican Party by the
national press, because he pulls votes from minority voters and has his dad's
name and fundraising connections to run on. But before we anoint him as the
next president, let's look at what he's done with his life. In a nutshell,
Junior
1) grew up as a very rich child of powerful parents,
2) partied from high school until he was 40,
3) made millions off of sweet insider business deals from political allies of
his dad, who happened to be the President,
and 4) got elected governor of Texas mostly because of his name.
Bush Junior has done some good work as governor of Texas. He has crossed the
partisan divide, reached out to minorities, and tackled at least one tough,
thankless issue (school financing; his plan was voted down in the
legislature.)
But 4 years -- even 4 good ones -- is a pretty short resume for the leader of
the free world. No one doubts Bill Clinton's ability to handle punishment and
come back for more. But Bush Junior's stamina and attention span are very
real concerns. Furthermore, Bush's term as governor has also been markedly
corrupt, although possibly in legal ways. What we mean is, he has taken
millions in campaign contributions from certain big businessmen -- many of
whom were in on the insider business deals that made him rich -- and those
same businessman have received billions in sweet deals from the Texas state
government during Bush's term.
Specifics: Like Al Gore, Bush Jr. attended Eastern elitist schools, in this
case Andover Prep, and Yale. According to a Newsweek profile, he "went to
Yale but seems to have majored in drinking at the Deke House." He joined the
secretive "Skull and Bones" club in 1968, as any good conspiracy buff can
tell you.
His business career was marked by mediocrity or failure which nonetheless
resulted in him getting lots of money from his father's political allies. And
his political career has been handed to him on a platter by his famous name,
and by his dad's cronies.
Bill Kristol, conservative pundit and Dan Quayle's former chief of staff,
says "The Bush network is the only genuine network in the Republican Party.
It is the establishment." Junior and Jeb Bush (recently elected in Florida)
are first brothers to be simultaneous governors since the Rockefellers.
To give you an idea of how rarefied his upbringing was, George Junior had an
argument with his mom at one point about whether non-Christians could go to
Heaven. (Barbara Bush felt they could; George didn't.) To settle the dispute,
they phoned up Billy Graham on the spot. (He sided with Junior, but warned
him not to play God.).)

Thin skinned: Bush tries to stifle his critics

One sign that Bush may not be ready for prime time is that he can't handle
criticism, and tries to silence his critics using his power and money. At the
very least, this shows he doesn't understand big-league politics and may not
be tough enough to handle more serious opponents, such as hostile foreign
countries and terrorists. At worst, it may be a sign of Nixon-like paranoia;
that president's thin-skin started out with similar small potatos and grew to
bring down his presidency amid enemies' lists, illegal break-ins of his
opponent's offices, and forcing the IRS to audit his enemies.
Bush can't blame this on his staff, either; when asked about one critical web
site, he told the press "There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of
this site, and this guy is just a garbage man, that's all he is."
As governor of Texas, for example, Bush Junior has sent the state police to
arrest peaceful demonstrators outside the governors mansion. While previous
governors allowed peaceful pickets on the public sidewalk outside the
mansion, Bush has claimed that they are blocking public access, and had them
arrested. Not all protestors, either -- just the ones he doesn't want the
press to see.
Bush also can't stand criticism on the Internet. His campaign quietly -- and
probably illegally -- bought up over 200 anti-Bush domain names including
"bushsucks.com", "bushbites.com", and "bushblows.com" over a year ago. If you
type in any of these URLs, you end up at Bush's official web site. His
campaign refuses to say whether this means that they admit that he bites,
blows and sucks. (Maybe he used to be a White House intern?)
If you wanted to set up one of those sites, breathe easy because many good
names are still available. The Bush camp somehow neglected to purchase
"bushisaprick.com", "bushisweak.com", or "bushsucksdonkeydicks.com", so $70
makes them yours.
Even worse, Bush and his high-priced lawyers have tried twice to shut down a
web site -- www.gwbush.com -- that parodies the Bush campaign, in particular
his "no comment" answers on drug use in his past. You will recall that Bush
has said it doesn't matter what he did "in his youth," because the question
is "have you grown up" and "have you learned from your mistakes." The parody
site presents a new program called "Amnesty 2000", in which Bush "proposes"
pardoning all drug convicts who have "grown up."
The Bush campaign filed one complaint about the site in April 1999, after
which the parody site's owners changed it to look less like the real Bush
site. That wasn't good enough though, and Bush lawyers filed against the site
again in May 1999. So far, it remains in business. Sources

Funeralgate: Lying Under Oath? Bush & Co. Squelch Investigation of
Contributor's Funeral Homes

Texas' state commission on funeral homes (the TFSC) started an investigation
of SCI, the world's largest funeral home company (with 3,442 homes, plus 433
cemeteries) after complaints that unlicensed apprenctices were embalming
corpses at 2 SCI embalming centers. The commission visited a couple of these,
and ended up fining SCI $450,000.
But SCI has very powerful friends. They gave governor Bush $35,000 in the
last election and $10K in 1994, gave $100,000 to the George Bush, Sr.
library, and hired the ex-president to give a speech last year for $70,000.
They also spread money around the Texas legislature and the Texas Attorney
General's office.
The commission continued its investigation. So SCI's boss, Robert Waltrip,
called the funeral commission's chairman and told him to "back off." If not,
Waltrip said, "I'm going to take this to the governor."
Still, the investigation continued. So Waltrip and his lawyer/lobbyist,
Johnnie B. Rogers, went to the governor's office and dropped off a letter
demanding a halt to the investigation. Rogers told Newsweek that he and
Waltrip were ushered in to see Joe Allbaugh, Bush's chief of staff (who is
now Bush's campaign manager.) Rogers goes on to say that Bush Jr. popped his
head in and said to Waltrip, "Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with
you?" Waltrip said yeah. Then the governor turned to Rogers and said, "Hey,
Johnnie B. Are you taking care of him?" Rogers said "I'm doing my best,
Governor."
The problem for Bush is that he swore under oath, in a July 20th 1999
affidavit, that he "had no conversations with [SCI] officials, agents, or
represenatives concerning the investigation or any dispute arising from it."
If Rogers is telling the truth, than Bush Jr. lied directly under oath. He
filed the affidavit in an attempt to avoid testifying in a whistleblower
lawsuit concerning this investigation and it's alleged squashing by Bush's
administration.
In the latest development, Bush himself has admitted that he spoke with
Waltrip and Rogers, but denies that it was anything substantial. Bush told
the Associated Press that ``It's a 20-second conversation. I had no
substantive conversation with the guy. Twenty seconds. That's hardly enough
time to even say hello, much less sit down and have a substantive discussion.
All I know is it lasted no time. And that hardly constitutes a serious
discussion. I did not have any knowledge at all of Waltrip's problem with
this case.''
Of course, nothing Bush says here contradicts what Rogers said. In fact, his
careful construction of this and other phrases for reporters -- such as "When
I was young and irresponsible, I was really young and irresponsible.", and
his evasion about whether Jews can go to heaven -- are incredibly similar to
Bill Clinton's weaseling about dope, the draft, what "is" is, etc.
Whatever Bush said out loud, Waltrip's complaints to the governor got quick
results. Eliza May -- the investigator for the funeral services commission --
says that after Waltrip visited the governor, she received phone calls from
three senior Bush aides asking if she could wrap up her proble quickly. She
says she was also summoned to another meeting in Allbaugh's office, one month
after the first one, and found Waltrip already there. The governor's top
aide, she says, demanded that she turn over a list of all of the documents
that she needed "to close the SCI investigation."
Since then, investigator Eliza May has been fired, 6 or 10 staff members on
the commission have been fired or resigned and not been replaced, and the
Texas legislature -- led by members receiving substantial contributions from
SCI -- passed a bill to reorganize the agency and remove it's head. On August
16, 199, Bush ordered his Comptroller to take over the agency and run it. May
-- who, it should be noted, is a Democrat and was even state Democratic
Treasurer at one point -- has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging she was
fired because she persisted with the investigation.
Bush simply didn't show up for his scheduled deposition on July 1st in the
case. (He isn't a defendant in the case, because Governors are immune from
lawsuits in Texas, but is being called as a material witness.) He filed his
affidavit on July 20th to indicate that he had nothing to add. A hearing is
scheduled on August 30th to determine if that is the case. Since he admitted
in the press that he did meet with Waltrip and Rogers, May has filed a
contempt of court motion with the court as well.
Sources

Corruption in Texas Government; State $ to Big Contributors

Bush's administration has been marked by the large amounts of state
controlled money flowing to men who have either contributed large amounts to
Bush's campaign, or who have made Junior personally rich through sweet
insider business deals, or both.
For example, the University of Texas' Investment Management Company (UTIMCO)
invests $1.7 billion of state money. Bush's cronies dominate this board, and
in return investment funds controlled by these very cronies or their friends
have received $457 million of that investment pool. There may even be more,
but this obscure group -- created under Bush -- cloaks its operations in a
thick veil of secrecy.
UTIMCO's chairman, Tom Hicks, now owns the Texas Rangers; his purchase of the
team made Governor Bush a very rich man. Furthermore, Hicks and his brother
gave $146,000 to the Bush campaign. In return, $252 million of the invested
money went to funds run by Hicks' business associates or friends, according
to the Houston Chronicle. Hicks even insisted that UTIMCO increase by $10
million an investment with a fund that he had an indirect financial interest
in, but UTIMCO staff halted funding after they discovered the conflict.
In another example, Larry Paul Manley, Bush's director of the Department of Ho
using until he resigned in January 1999, is under police investigation for
steering federal tax credits to cronies. Texas' top auditor discovered in
1997 that 60% of department contracts went to Manley's former colleagues at
local savings and loans, but refused to make the findings public until long
after the criminal probes began.
Another key player in the Bush world is Richard Rainwater, the billionaire
Texas investor who made Bush Jr.'s original involvement in the Texas Rangers
deal possible. That's the deal that made Jr. rich, of course. Bush had
several other personal investments in Rainwater controlled companies. But
Rainwater has received much from Bush and the state of Texas' treasury, too.
For example, the state teacher retirement fund sold three office buildings to
Rainwater's real estate company at bargain prices, and without bids in 2 of
the cases. The fund invested $90 million in the Frost Bank Plaza in Austin,
and sold it to Rainwater's Crescent Real Estate for $35 million. Bush signed
a law that will give his former baseball team co-owners -- including
Rainwater -- a $10 million bonus payment when a new Dallas arena is built.
Bush also proposed a cap on business real estate taxes that would have saved
Rainwater millions on his various properties (but it lost in the
legislature). And UTIMCO, described above, has invested $20 million in
Rainwater companies.
Bush may or may not have violated state ethics laws with all of this big
money backscratching, but there is no doubt that he and these businessman are
operating corruptly -- funneling large amounts of state money to the
businessmen's companies, and large amounts of their personal and business
money into George Bush Jr.'s pocket and political campaigns.
Sources

Avoided the Vietnam War

Just like Dan Quayle and Steve Forbes, two other politically-connected rich
kids, Bush Junior joined his home state's National Guard. It's not clear how
he got past the waiting list, but his dad was a U.S. Congressman at the time,
and his grandfather was a famous U.S. Senator.
Instead of going to Vietnam, he flew cool jet planes around Texas, valiantly
defending us against the Mexican air force. His political connections got him
a sweet deal -- they not only got him into the National Guard, and got him
the last (rare) training slot for pilots despite the fact that he scored the
lowest allowable score - 25/100 - on a pilot's aptitude test, but he was
assigned to fly an older plane (the F102) which was being phased out at the
time, which meant that he had no chance at all of going to Vietnam.
On this issue, too, Bush has weaseled in a manner eerily reminiscent of Bill
Clinton. He claims that he joined the guard to fly planes, just like his dad.
But George Bush, Senior, a genuine war hero, joined the Navy, not the
National Guard. Both the Navy and Air Force had plenty of openings when Bush
Jr. joined, but he chose the stateside Guard. Furthermore, his enlistment
form had a check box to indicate whether you volunteered to go the Vietnam or
not. His was checked NO, but now he claims that the clerks there often filled
that part out and checked NO for you. Once he joined, Bush was promoted to
First Lieutenant in just 4 months, a very short time, and was given several
months off to work on a political campaign. He was also released 6 months
early to work on another campaign.

Insider Business Deals

Bush Jr. has made a lot of money off of three business deals. In each one,
his contribution is hard to perceive, yet he walked off with hundreds of
thousands or millions of dollars in deals arranged by his father's political
cronies. The deals were
1. the sale of Junior's struggling oil company,
2. Junior's sale of oil stock just before the Gulf War, and
3. getting a cheap slice of the Texas Rangers baseball team, which he
recently sold for a huge profit (he paid $600,000, and sold for $14 million).
The general pattern here is just as important as the details. Bush did no
work in his business career that can clearly be called "excellent" or even
"solid." The money he made is tangential to his efforts at best -- the oil
companies lost a great deal of money during his tenure, and the Rangers cut a
lot of corners -- which makes the cronyism that much more suspicious.
It's not just that one or two of Bush's deals look funky; every major
business deal he has been involved with included wealthy supporters of his
father, and many of those investors later received favorable treatment from
either the federal government under Bush, Sr. or the current Texas
administration of Junior.

Deal #1: The Oil Business: Rewarded for Losing Money

Like his dad, Junior struck out in Texas and founded an oil company, Arbusto
Energy, Inc., with $20,000 of his own money. (Arbusto is the Spanish word for
bush.) The company foundered in the early 1980s when oil prices dropped (and
his dad was Vice President.)
The 50 investors, who were "mainly friends of my uncle" in Junior's own
words, put in $4.7 million and lost most of it. Junior claims that investors
"did pretty good," but Bush family friend Russell Reynolds told the Dallas
Morning News: "The bottom line was there were problems, and it didn't work
out very well. I think we got maybe 20 cents on the dollar."
As Arbusto neared collapse, Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation bought it in
September 1984. Despite his poor track record, the owners made Bush, Jr. the
president and gave him 13.6% of the parent company's stock.
Spectrum 7 was a small oil firm owned by two staunch Reagan/Bush Sr.
supporters -- William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds. These two were also owners
of the Texas Rangers and allowed Bush Jr. to purchase a chunk of the team
cheaply; he later sold it for over 24 times what he paid.
Within two years of purchasing Arbusto and making Bush Jr. president,
Spectrum 7 was itself in trouble; it lost $400,000 in its last 6 months of
operation. That ended in 1986, when Harken Energy Corporation bought Spectrum
7's 180-well operation.
Junior got $227,000 worth of Harken stock, and a lot more. He was named to
the board of directors, made $80,000 to $100,000 a year well into the 1990s
as a "consultant" to Harken, and was allowed to buy Harken stock at 40% below
face value.
He also borrowed $180,375 from Harken at very low rates; the company's 1989
and 1990 SEC filings said it "forgave" $341,000 in loans to unspecified
executives.
So what did Junior do for all this money? It's hard to say exactly, but things
 happened for Harken after Junior came on board:
it got a $25 million stock offering from an unusual bank with CIA ties,
it won a surprise exclusive drilling contract with Bahrain, a small Mideast
country, and
an Arab member of its Board of Directors was invited to White House policy
meetings with President George Bush and National Security Adviser Brent
Scowcroft.

Easy Money From Odd Sources

The firm's $25 million stock offering was underwritten by Stephens, Inc., an
Arkansas bank whose head, Jackson Stephens, was on President Bush's "Team
100." (That was a group of 249 rich persons who gave at least $100,000 each
to his presidential campaign committee). Stephens placed the offering with
the London subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland, which (according to the
Wall Street Journal) was not known as an investor in small American
companies.
Union Bank did have other connections; it was a joint-venture partner with
the notorious BCCI in a Geneva-based bank, and was involved in a scandal
surrounding the Nugan Hand Bank, a CIA operation in Australia whose
executives were advised by William Quasha, the father of Harken's chairman
(Alan Quasha.) Union Bank was also involved in scandals surrounding
Panamanian money laundering by BCCI, and Ferdinand Marcos' movement of 325
tons of gold out of the Phillipines.
That wasn't the only financing connection Junior brought; after the company
won its Bahrain deal (see next item), the billionaire Bass brothers of Texas
offered to underwrite the drilling operation. Robert Bass is also a member of
Bush's Team 100, and he and his kin gave $226,000 to Bush Senior between 1988
and 1992.

The Bahrain Contract

In January 1990, Harken was chosen out of the blue by the small Mideast
country Bahrain for an exclusive offshore oil drilling contract. They beat
out Amoco, an experienced and major international conglomerate, despite
having no offshore oil drilling experience at all. As of March 1995, the most
recent report we could find, they had found no oil.
Junior has denied that he was involved in the deal, and even told the Wall
Street Journal that he opposed it. But a company insider told Mother Jones
Magazine "Like any member of the board, he was thrilled. His attitude was
'Holy shit, what a great deal!'"
If he did oppose it, he wasn't much of a consultant. Charles Strain, an
energy company analyst in Houston, told Mother Jones: "Harken is not hard to
understand -- it's easy. The company has only one real asset -- its Bahrain
contract. If that field turns out to be dry, Harken's stock is worth, at the
most, 25 cents a share. If they hit it big over there, the stock could be
worth $30 to $40 dollars a share." As of December 1998, Harken Energy Corp.
(HEC on Amex) is trading at $2.69 a share.

Access to the President For Bush's Foreign Business Partner

The most troubling thing that happened to Harken after it bought George Bush
Junior in, was that one of its Board of Directors members was suddenly
admitted to the highest levels of United States foreign policy meetings.
These were not Clintonesque meet-and-greet fundraisers, but actual working
policy meetings during a critical period.
After the Harken-Bahrain deal was signed, Talat Othman was added to a group
of Arabs who met with George Bush and National Security Adviser Brent
Scowcroft three times in 1990 -- once just two days after Iraq invaded
Kuwait.
Othman was the representative of Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, who purchased 10% of
Harken stock and had several ties to the infamous BCCI bank. Bakhsh was a
co-investor in Saudi Arabia with alleged BCCI front man Ghaith Pharaon.
Bakhsh's banker, Khalid bin Mahfouz, was another BCCI figure and head of the
largest bank in Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Kalifah, the prime minister of Bahrain,
was a BCCI shareholder and played the key role in selecting Harken for the
oil contract.
This is the crowd that gained entry to the President and the National
Security Adviser of the United States after George Junior made his deal with
Harken.

Deal #2: Selling Oil Stock Just Before Iraq Invaded

George Bush, Junior sold 60% of his stock in Harken Oil in June, 1990 for
$848,560. That was brilliant timing; in August, Iraq invaded Kuwait and
Harken's stock dropped 25%. Soon after, a big quarterly loss caused it to
drop further.
A secret State Deparment memo in May of that year had warned that Saddam was
out of control, and listed options for responding to him, including an oil
ban that might affect US oil prices.
We can't be sure that the President or an aide mentioned these developments
to his son, or that Harken's representative who was admitted to meetings with
the President picked up something and reported back to Junior. But it is the
simplest and most logical explanation. The Bushes acknowledge that George
Senior and his sons consult on political strategy and other matters
constantly.
Furthermore, Harken's internal financial advisers at Smith Barney had issued
a report in May warning of the company's deteriorating finances. Harken owed
more than $150 million to banks and other creditors at the time. George Bush,
Jr. was a member of the board and also of Harken's restructuring committee,
which met in May and worked directly with the Smith Barney consultants. He
must have known of these warnings.
These are pretty clear-cut indications of illegal insider trading. The
Securities and Exchange Commission, controlled at the time by President
George Bush, investigated but chose not to press charges.
Junior also violated another SEC rule explicitly. He was required to register
his sale as an insider trade by July 10, 1990, but didn't until March 1991,
after the Gulf War was over. He was not punished or cited.

Deal #3: A Big Slice of the Texas Rangers for a Little Money (and a Big
Profit)

The third unusually easy deal for George Bush Junior was his involvement in
the Texas Rangers baseball team. In a nutshell, he was offered a piece of
this valuable franchise for only $600,000, by supporters of his dad who also
bailed out his failing oil company. He recently sold his stake for $14
million to a Texas millionaire with lots of businesses regulated by Bush
Junior's administration. "When all it is all said and done, I will have made
more money than I ever dreamed I would make," Bush told the Forth Worth
Star-Telegram.
Bush was allowed to buy 1.8% of the team for $600,000 of borrowed money, and
was even made one of the two general managers. His qualifications for partial
ownership? Several years working at failing oil companies, and his political
connections through his father. It's hard to be sure, but we're guessing that
latter was probably more important.
Junior tripled his investment, like the other owners, with the help of massive
 government intervention and subsidies. But his real wealth came from simply
being given 10% of the team as a "bonus" for "putting together the investment
team."
Even if he really had done that work, it's an absurd bonus ($12.2 million),
but the fact is that he didn't add much. Cincinatti financier William DeWitt
brought Bush in, not vice versa, shortly after George Bush Sr. was elected
president. (DeWitt had also invested in Junior's oil companies.). The only
investor Bush actually brought in was Roland Betts, a Yale fraternity
brother, and that wasn't good enough.
Under Junior's management, the deal was about to fall apart until baseball
commissioner Peter Uebberoth brought in another investment group led by Fort
Worth Billionaire Richard Rainwater and Dallas investor "Rusty" Rose. Since
the deal, both men have profited greatly from business with the Texas
administration of George Bush, Jr. Rose personally invested $3.2 million and
became the other general manager of the team. Under the team partnership
agreement, Bush Junior couldn't take any "material actions" wihtout Rose's
prior approval. There was also a method for removing Junior as a general
partner, but no way to remove Rose. Yet Rose's "bonus" for his role in
setting up the deal was less than half of Junior's.
What kind of owners would approve such a big payoff to Bush? In addition to
Rose and Rainwater, men with business pending before Texas government, the
owners included William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds, major contributors to
President Bush who had also purchased Junior's failing oil company through
their Spectrum 7 Energy company.
If this deal doesn't smell bad enough already, consider Bush's blatant
hypocrisy. The main value of the team is its new stadium (ranked by Financial
World as the most profitable in baseball) and 300 acres of vacant land the
team owns between the stadium and 6 Flags of Texas, which is next door.
Putting Tax Money into Bush's Pocket
The hypocritical part is, the private owners of this very valuable land
didn't want to sell. Bush and his partners gave them only a lowball offer,
and when it was rejected they arranged for a new government agency (the
Arlington Sports Facility Development Authority, or ASFDA) to condemn it for
them.
The agency foreclosed the land and paid the owners a very low price, later
judged by a jury to be only 1/6th of its actual value. The agency also
floated bonds, guaranteed and repaid by taxpayers, to finance the purchase.
This amounted to a $135 million subsidy for Bush and partners, compared with
the $80 million they paid for the franchise. Since they recently sold the
entire franchise for $250 million, it's easy to see whose money Bush and
friends pocketed.
The next time Junior talks about tax cuts, remember this: Arlinton had to
impose a new 1/2 cent sales tax just to pay for the subsidy Bush and his
partners received.
To add insult to injury, Bush and his partners continue to stiff the
taxpayers for $7.5 million they owe under the terms of the agreement. It held
that the team would pay all expenses over $135 million. The original owners
of just 13 of the acres sued the City of Arlington, saying that the ASFDA had
not paid a fair price for the land. The jury awarded them $7.5 million, but
even though the project exceeded the $135 million limit, the partners have
refused to pay. Given their huge taxpayer subsidy and $170 million profits,
it seems absurdly selfish.
George Bush, Jr. has said in campaign speeches "I will do everything I can to
defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am
the governor of this state." Apparently this deal was not covered by that
statement, since he wasn't governor yet.
He claims that he "wasn't aware of the details" of the land condemnations,
even though he was the team's managing general partner and has bragged about
personally getting the stadium built. But he told the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram in October 1990 that "The idea of making a land play, absolutely
, to plunk the field down in the middle of a big piece of land, that's kind
of always been the strategy."
And the key to their land play was always the strong arm of government. A
memo from Arlington real estate broker Mike Reilly to Rangers President Tom
Schieffer dated October 26, 1990 - the day before Bush's comment about the
land play - said "In this particular situation our first offer should be our
final offer ... If this fails, we will probably have to initiate condemnation
proceedings after the bond election passes."
On the first day of the 1993 campaign, Bush said "The best way to allocate
resources in our society is through the marketplace. Not through a governing
elite." Not through a private sports team buying in the President's son
cheap, and then getting the government to hand them extremely valuable land.

Party Hearty: Sex, Drugs, And Rock 'N Roll?

For almost half his life, Junior was distinguished mainly by his hearty
appetite for partying. A Newsweek profile by Evan Thomas, describing his
college years, says he "seems to have majored in beer drinking at the Deke
House." After he formed his first company (which failed), Thomas writes, "By
his own account, Bush spent a lot of time in bars, trying to sort out who he
was. He had a kind of ragged nervous energy in that period, and he could be a
bully."
The Bush family spin is that the governor quit drinking cold turkey on his
40th birthday, straightened out by the love of a good woman (his wife,
Laura.) They even pull out their secret weapon, lovable Barbara Bush, with
anecdotes about what a rascal little George Junior was.
But the explosive element here is not booze. It's sex, drugs and hypocrisy.
Frankly, it doesn't bother us if candidates have partied, even a lot. Who
wants a bunch of namby-pamby boy scouts running the country? But George Bush
Jr. makes a big point of travelling around the country and lecturing students
on staying celibate, sober and drug free. He does not permit the option of
partying hard until you're 40 and then stopping.
And as governor, he attacked his predecessor for allowing leniency toward
first-time drug users, and pushed a "no tolerance" policy that has sent
casual cocaine users -- who's dads aren't rich, or president -- to prison for
years. He even has the gall to proclaim that such users "need to know that
drug use has consequences." At least if you're from the wrong neighborhood.

No Handcuffs or Dwarf Orgies

Junior is so worried about his past that he hired a private detective to
investigate himself. (I guess he can't remember what he did at those parties,
which tells you something right there.)
According to an unnamed insider quoted on MSNBC, Bush "isn't terribly
thrilled" about what they found, though no one is spilling the details (yet).
"No handcuffs or dwarf orgies, but he was a handsome, rich playboy and lived
that life," the insider said.
Sex: Bush volunteers to reporters that he has been faithful to his wife.
However, he was married at 31 and makes no claim of virginity before that
point, even as he lectures the youth of today to remain celibate. A Clinton
aide who was in Bush's class at Yale has already warned him that "People who
live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

COCAINE:

According to a new book, three independent sources close to the Bush family
report that Governor Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, and
taken to Harris County Jail, but avoided jail or formal charges through an
informal diversion plan involving community service with Project P.U.L.L., an
inner city Houston program for troubled youths at the Martin Luther King Jr.
Community Center in Houston's dirt-poor Third Ward. (In another new book,
reporter Bill Minutaglio, writes that the year of community service was
arranged by the Governor's father, ex-president Bush, after he caught Bush
Jr. driving drunk.)
That year certainly is out of character with the rest of Bush Jr.'s life.
Before and after 1972, he was a rich, hard drinking playboy. Suddenly, and
only that one time in his life, he worked for a liberal charity in an inner
city ghetto. As soon as the year was over, he resumed his previous pattern
and has done no charity work since.
The author of this new book, J. H. Thompson, has some interesting scandals of
his own. Of course, his own flaws don't disprove what Bush did or didn't do,
but the way Thompson has responded certainly undercuts his credibility.
First, he admitted to a reporter from Slate Magazine that he made up at least
one detail, that one of his informants spat tobacco into a styrofoam cup
during their (phone!) interview.
Then, reporters -- or perhaps Bush campaign operatives -- found that the
author apparently is an ex-convict, on parole for hiring a hit man to kill a
former boss. That doesn't mean he can't research, of course, but Thompson's
credibility suffered greatly as he claimed it was someone else, despite
incredible similarities between his resume -- including unexplained job gaps
during the prison years -- and confirmation from his parole officer that
indeed, the author named J. H. Thompson is the one who did time.
Bush Jr.'s Evasive Responses:
Bush has essentially admitted that he used cocaine in his Clintonesque,
carefully worded partial denials. He won't deny using cocaine or marijuana,
though under persistent questioning he said that he hadn't used cocaine in
the last 7 years. Most newspapers report that he denies using cocaine since
1974, but that's not exactly true.
That is the most favorable interpretation of what Bush said, but since Bush
and his campaign have already made Clintonesque denials on other issues, we
need to look at his words carefully.
What Bush actually said was ""I could have passed the [FBI] background check
on the standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was
president of the United States - a 15-year period," Mr. Bush said. This is
ambiguous because background forms ask slightly different questions,
depending on the position. Drug questions can go back one year, seven years
or 10 years. Bush Jr. didn't have any formal position in his father's
administration, so which one applies is unclear. And 15-years is not one of
the choices.
Since Bush Sr.'s presidency began in January 1989, reporters assumed that Jr.
was denying drug use for 15 years before that, to 1974. But that is not at
all clear. His only direct statement was for seven years before today. He
could easily have been denying drug use only for 15 years before today, based
on 7 or 10 years dating back from the END of his dad's term. 10 years before
1993, the end of Bush Sr.'s term, is pretty close to 15 years before today.
The Clinton administration actually has a stricter standard than Bush did --
the FBI now asks about any drug use after age 18. But Governor Bush has
refused to say whether he would pass that standard, even though that is what
he will be asked if he wins. Bush also has refused to answer whether he could
have passed the FBI test when his father was vice president, during the 8
years from 1981-1989.
As for the arrest and diversion charge, Governor Bush admits working at the
center in 1972. When asked for comment, Bush's campaign spokesman reportedly
said "Oh shit... no comment." McLellan denies saying that.
Bush's father, ex-president George Bush, denies the cocaine arrest charge,
and in yet another carefully worded denial, Bush said ""It's totally
ridiculous what he suggested and it's not true."
You'll recall that President Clinton made a very similar statement about
Gennifer Flower's allegations of an affair, during the 1992 campaign. Later,
when he had to testify under oath, it turned out that he was denying that all
of the details of the story were true, not whether an affair had occurred or
any specific details (many of which were accurate).
Similarly, Bush himself does not deny being caught with cocaine, or having
performed community service. Bush's campaign spokesman has now denied that
Bush was ever arrested on any drug charge.
The director of the center, Madgelean Bush (no relation), also denies the
reports. However, her center is dependent on Texas state money, and the
director, who grew up poor but has amassed several houses around the center
while running it, allowed Governor Bush to use the center for a photo
opportunity earlier this year.
The Bush campaign also produced Carol Vance, who was the Democratic District
Attorney in Harris County in 1972, to say that there was no diversion program
in that year, nor were there any Republican judges (as Hatfield's book
states.)
Rock and Roll: Bush keeps a picture of himself with two members of ZZ Top,
but does not play the song "Tube Steak Boogie" during his celibacy lectures.
We have found no evidence to support the the most explosive allegation so
far; that Bush played air guitar to a Foghat record at a party in the late
1970s. But he won't deny it, either.
When pressed on the hypocrisy issue, he speaks to hypocritical baby boomer
parents everywhere: "If I were you, I wouldn't tell your kids that you smoked
pot unless you want 'em to smoke pot. I think it's important for leaders, and
parents, not to send mixed signals. I don't want some kid saying, 'Well,
Governor Bush tried it.'"
It's amazing enough that he openly defends hypocrisy, but his own signals are
very mixed. When allowed to imply that he is just another manly,
hard-drinking rapscallion, Bush seizes the opportunity. "When I was young and
irresponsible, I was really young and irresponsible," he often says. He even
hints at pot smoking, as in the above quote, and why not? Everyone from his
likely opponent Al Gore to Newt Gingrich has admitted smoking pot.
But Junior wants it both ways. When the deadly rumor of cocaine use surfaces,
he retreats to his high-minded rhetoric about not giving mixed messages. If
he thinks he can skate to the presidency without either his right-wing foes
or embittered Clintonistas pushing his past into the limelight, then he
really IS on drugs.

Sources

The Bush Watch (web site), an opinionated, well-researched and reasonably
fair (though blatantly liberal) anti-Bush site. http://www.geocities.com/Capit
olHill/3750/bush.htm
"The Sons Also Rise", by Evan Thomas, Newsweek, November 16, 1998 p44-8
"Like Most, I'm Amazed" (Bush interview with Howard Fineman), Newsweek,
November 16, 1998
"Another Bush Contemplates Run for Presidency", by Sue Anne Pressley
(Washington Post news service), San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 1997 pA5
"The Bush Brothers", by Howard Fineman, Newsweek, November 2, 1998 p30-33

Quote Sources

"dwarf orgies": "George W. Bush, the dirt digger" by Jeannette Walls, MSNBC's
"The Scoop" gossip column.
"feather my nest": "Business associates profit during Bush's term as
governor" by R. G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
Jesse Ventura: "Ventura a star pupil with media, colleagues at governor's
school", by Bill Salisbury, Houston Chronicle, November 13, 1998
Gingrich: "Governor did not influence Gingrich decision, aide says", by Ken
Herman, Austin American-Statesman, November 9, 1998
"Who goes to heaven":"Bush fields questions about faith upon return from trip
to Israel" by Clay Robison, The Houston Chronicle, December 3, 1998
Dirty shirts: "Another Bush Contemplates Run for Presidency", by Sue Anne
Pressley (Washington Post news service), San Francisco Chronicle, May 12,
1997
Responsibility era: "'I have to perform,' he says," by Kenneth Walsh, U. S.
News and World Report, November 16, 1998
"More money than I ever dreamed": quoted in "The Governor's Sweetheart Deal",
by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer, January 30, 1998

Thin Skin Sources

"Bush Criticizes Web Site as Malicious", by Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning
News, May 22, 1999
"Governor Rips Web Site Parody", Associated Press, May 21, 1999
"Bush Campaign Tries to Limit Internet Attacks", by Alan Elsner, Reuters News
Serviec (on Yahoo! web site), May 19, 1999
"4 protesters arrested at Governor 's Mansion" by R.G. RATCLIFFE, Houston
Chronicle, April 20, 1999 Section A Page 13 Metfront. 3 STAR edition
"Activists to challenge policy against protest gatherings near the Governor's
Mansion", by Jay Root, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 25, 1999

Funeralgate Sources

"The Funeral Home Flap: Trouble for a Texas Mortician with links to the Bush
Family", by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, August 16, 1999
"Bush Affidavit Refuted", by Janet Elliot, Law News Network, August 16, 1999
"Funeral company hopeful after takeover " By Juan B. Elizondo Jr., Austin
American-Statesman, Wednesday, August 18, 1999
"Governor's role questioned in funeral agency oversight: Bush's office
rejects call for legislative control", By George Kuempel , The Dallas Morning
News, August 8, 1999
"Bush Watch Special: Dubya and The Gravedigger", by Jerry Politex, The Bush
Watch Website (ongoing)
Scandal Timeline, Austin Chronicle, ongoing

Insider Deal Sources

"Business associates profit during Bush's term as governor" by R. G.
Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
"How Bush REALLY Made His Millions", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Web
Site, ongoing
"Who is David Edwards?", by Micah Morrison, The Wall Street Journal, March 1,
1995
"The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer,
January 30, 1998
"Bush's Big Score", by Robert Bryce, The Dallas Observer, February 9, 1998
"Bush's Free Ride", by Stuart Eskenazi, Dallas Observer, October 29, 1998
"Good Connections: Family Ties helped fund oil venture that began Bush's
business career", by Richard Oppel Jr. and George Kuemple, Dallas Morning
News, November 16, 1998
"Whitewashing the Bush Boys", by Stephen Pizzo, Mother Jones, March-April
1994
"Family Value$", by Stephen Pizzo, Mother Jones, September-October 1992
"Diamond Brilliance: Bush mastered art of he deal in building his baseball
fortune", by R. G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA19
"The Family that Preys Together", by Jack Colhoun, "Covert Action Quarterly,
#41, Summer 1992
"Downloading the Bush Files", by Michael King, Texas Observer, November 1998

Corruption Sources

"Business associates profit during Bush's term as governor" by R. G.
Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1998 pA1
"Secrecy Cloaks $1.7 billion in UT Investments: Board puts money in funds run
by trustees, friends of trustees", by R.G. Ratliffe, The Houston Chronicle,
March 20, 1999
"How Bush REALLY Made His Millions", by Jerry Politex, The Bush Watch Web
Site, ongoing
"Who is David Edwards?", by Micah Morrison, The Wall Street Journal, March 1,
1995
"The Governor's Sweetheart Deal", by Robert Bryce, The Texas Observer,
January 30, 1998
"Bush's Big Score", by Robert Bryce, The Dallas Observer, February 9, 1998
"Downloading the Bush Files", by Michael King, Texas Observer, November 1998
"Richard Rainwater: The invisible man behind one of the year's biggest deals",
 by John Morthland, Texas Monthly, September 1996
"Auditor Withheld Findings on State Housing Agency", by Craig Flournoy,
Dallas Morning News, February 18, 1999
"Capitol Report: Housing Officials Under Fire", Austin American Statesman,
February 3, 1999

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N Roll Sources

"Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President", by
J. H. Hatfield, St. Martin's Press, 1999 (withdrawn)
First Son : George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, by Bill Minutaglio,
Times Books, 1999
Bush denies allegation of '72 drug arrest in book, By Michael Kranish, Boston
Globe, 10/20/99 pA10
Bush Adds to Drug Use Statement", Dallas Morning News, August 20, 1999
to Busting Bush's Biographer, by Jacob Weisberg, Slate Magazine, Oct. 19,
1999
"Author alleging Bush drug arrest reportedly a felon: He denies being Texas
convict, says similar names led to mistake", By Pete Slover, The Dallas
Morning News, October 21, 1999
"George W. Bush, the dirt digger" by Jeannette Walls, MSNBC's "The Scoop"
gossip column.
GOP insiders have privately confirmed to The Skeleton Closet that Bush hired
the private detective, and that he was a very sexy and highly sexed bachelor.
"Bush, looking at D.C., sees a 'sullied process'", Austin American-Statesman,
September 16, 1998
"The Sons Also Rise", by Evan Thomas, Newsweek, November 16, 1998 p44-8
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