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>From http://dailyenron.com/documents/20020701102142-26488.asp
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Where Are Burton and DeLay on Halliburton?
Administration Mauled by Own Dog
Of Double Standards
JULY 1: Remember Whitewater - that two-bit, failed Arkansas real estate deal that
dominated much of the Clinton's eight years in the White House? Republicans felt it
represented such a serious ethical marker that it required six years of investigating
costing some $65 million.
Back then, GOP leaders like Dan Burton and Tom DeLay regularly climbed in front
of TV cameras and worked themselves up into moralistic hissy fits over Whitewater.
They justified their non-stop investigations by saying that a President who
conducted himself badly in business was capable of, well, who knows what!
While Bill Clinton is gone, Dan Burton and Tom DeLay are still in office. But their
views on business ethics must have softened. We have heard nary a peep out of
either man about the current Vice President's now suspect behavior while CEO of
Halliburton (1995-2000.) Halliburton is under SEC investigation for cooking its
books, a la Enron, under Cheney's command.
The money involved in the Whitewater deal would not have been enough to buy a
fixer-upper in Hope, Arkansas. But the Halliburton deals now under investigation
can be measured in the tens of millions of dollars.
So, where is the outrage? Maybe it's "different." Let's see:
- Clinton's Whitewater business deal occurred before he was elected President
- Cheney's Halliburton deals occurred before he was elected Vice President
Check.
- The accounting for Clinton's Whitewater loans raised questions
- Halliburton's accounting methods under Cheney have raised questions
Check.
- The Whitewater loans to Clinton were part of a regulatory (S&L) investigation
- Halliburton's financial statements are part of a regulatory (SEC) investigation
Check.
- During Whitewater, Republicans argued that Executive Branch agencies could not
be trusted to investigate their own boss.
- SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, a Bush/Cheney appointee, is now investigating
Halliburton and its former accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. (Andersen was one of
Pitt's law clients before he was appointed to the SEC.)
Check.
- The Clintons lost money on the Whitewater deal.
- Cheney profited handsomely since his salary and bonuses were based on
Halliburton's now- suspect financial statements.
No Check. Except for Dick Cheney - who received very large bonus checks for what
is now alleged to have been artificially inflated Halliburton profits.
So, some enterprising reporter might want to ask Dan Burton and Tom DeLay to
explain the differences - as they see them - between Whitewater and Halliburton.
Of Dogs and Fleas
Suddenly, the Bush administration finds itself scrambling to contain the bonfires of
corporate vanity breaking out all around them. To listen to the President over the
past few days you would think the fire started by accident. But, in fact, it was a
disaster that has been in the making for eight years.
The fuel for this fire began building in 1994 with the GOP's so-called "Contract With
America" which sparked an aggressive and careless deregulation of critical private
sector industries.
When George W. Bush was elected President, those same forces moved into the
Executive Branch. Just months ago this administration granted many of the very
same companies unprecedented access to the regulatory buttons and levers of
government. Some of the same now-disgraced CEO's were even granted White
House posts during the transition. Later these companies and CEO's were called
upon to help draft industry-friendly regulations for such critical agencies as the SEC
and FCC, as well as the Treasury and Energy Departments.
>From the very beginning, public interest groups have complained that the
administration was way too cozy with industry. But when the administration was
asked to reassure them that nothing untoward was afoot, the administration
responded by blocking access to the records of those meetings - not only for the
public, but also from Congress and the General Accounting Office.
Now the administration is reaping the whirlwind for its unquestioned trust in men like
Enron's Kenneth Lay and Arthur Andersen's CEO Joseph Berardino, both of whom
held transition team posts and helped fashion energy and accounting rules,
respectively.
A timeless colloquialism applies here: "When you lay with dogs, you rise with fleas."
What you are seeing now is the Bush administration's reaction to a powerful itch,
which would be poetic justice if it were not for the fact that innocent workers,
retirees, and shareholders are getting bit as well.
Quote of The Day
"We made such an incredible amount of money we didn't want to recognize it all
into earnings. We were supposed to make $500 million in a quarter and we were
doing it in a day."
A former Enron executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Enron's
manipulation of its trading books
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