A Sow's Ear and a Silk Purse
by bobby jennings
Life is a series of crossroads and when "wrong" choices are made at
these crossroads, at best we open ourselves to criticism and to doubts about our
integrity. At worst, these choices remain to haunt us and they reappear time and
again, sometimes in our own lives, and sometimes in the lives of those around
us. This seems to be the situation with the cases of corporate fraud that are
now coming out of hiding.
There appeared a small story in the New York Times in 1989. It seemed only to
be a story of children of the rich and famous being given a break. The story now
looms darkly over nearly every American and their 401Ks and pension plans.
There were many reasons I did not support George W. Bush in 2000 even though
I was a registered Republican. The fact that he tried to cover up a past D.U.I.
or glossed over an earlier drinking problem was not in the mix. Sure, Bush had a
rocky start as a young adult but so have many other folks who have gone on to
very successful careers. Usually though there is a point where one must choose
between integrity and deception in their quest for future success.
The tip-off that started me looking deeper into the campaign rhetoric was
Bush's stock transactions in the late 80's while his father was Vice President
and then President. Perhaps the low point of Bush's professional life was the
failure of his oil company, Spectrum 7. Though the company was failing, Bush
arranged the sale of his company for 2 million dollars to Harken Energy, which
was also losing money. When the founder of Harken was quizzed as to why he
bought the company, he stated simply "His name was George Bush".
The sale also netted Bush stock in Harken, and a directorship on Harken's
board of directors and audit committee. It was not well known that Harken was
losing money at that time, as they had fraudulently hidden the losses from the
public by misstating profits (as eventually ruled by the Securities Exchange
Commission). Sound familiar?
Bush failed on four occasions to completely report his sales of Harken stock
as an insider, as required by the SEC, for up to 8 months. While Bush was a
director of Harken he sold two-thirds of his shares. Just a few weeks later
Harken's shares tumbled in value when bad news about earnings was publicly
announced. The SEC considered but declined prosecution, stating that Bush's
father being President was given no consideration. It didn't hurt, I'm sure,
that the SEC general counsel during the investigation was James Doty who had
previously served as Bush's attorney in the Texas Rangers purchase. James Doty
was previously and currently is a member of the Dallas law firm Baker Botts.
That's the same Baker as in James Baker who served under Bush I as Secretary of
State, and represented Bush Jr. in the Florida election debacle. Circumstantial
but revealing. The swinging door between business and government has been so
active as to wear out the hinges.
Failure to report the stock transaction is only a minor point to the story.
The point is that Harken faked their earnings and losses to keep the price of
their stock higher. When the bad news was reported, the public is the one who
paid the price. Harken stock was a major part of young Bush's personal wealth.
Bush was on the audit committee of Harken. One has to also take into
consideration that all this occurred while Bush was hobnobbing with Ken Lay of
Enron. Suggestions by Bush that he didn't know about the losses is as believable
as Ken Lays's testimony that he didn't know what was going on with Enron.
It's amazing that it took so long for the retelling of the Harken story to
reach the mainstream press. It recently appeared in Paul Krugman's column in the
New York Times, on July 2nd, 2002 -- "Everyone Is Outraged", which
has started the other media to look into it as well. Suggestions by the Bush
administration that the Democrats are behind this latest news is, frankly,
giving too much credit to the Democracts.
For years, a lot of people have been labeling Ralph Nader as a kook because
of his railing against corporate crime. The current headlines that are dominated
by Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Xerox, etc. are proving Mr. Nader right on the
money. Perhaps Mr. Nader is not presidential timber but he deserves to be
listened to and not dismissed lightly. Remember, he is the one who cleaned up
the auto industry and perhaps he can do the same for our government.
After a bumpy start in life, Bush parlayed his "success" with Harken into the
floundering Texas Rangers baseball team. He turned the ball team into a
"success" with a political sweetheart stadium deal, and then on to the
Governorship of Texas and Presidential candidate.
We are given many chances in life to rectify past mistakes, but it is often
the first one that determines whether we will walk the path of integrity or
deception. If we want a silk purse, we must sew one out of silk to be able to
live that life of integrity.
Read more on Bush and Harken at the nonpartisan-?
Center For Public Integrity.
RECOMMENDED BOOK: "Profiles
in Courage for Our Time", introduced and edited by Caroline Kennedy.
Published in 2002, this collection is a stirring look at people who rarely
thought about what they could do for themselves, but always about what they
could do for their country.
Info/Order this book.
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