Tag: Harken

Slinking out the Back Door.

Oh, and by the way, Harvey Pitt resigned yesterday, right after the polls had closed in the East. After all, we wouldn’t want to remind anyone of how thick the corporate corruption surrounding Dubya and his minions runs until after the election now, would we? As it turns out, the GOP-controlled Congress probably won’t look into SEC malfeasance anymore anyway.

The Other Shoe Drops.

Perhaps content that Saddam’s “resurgence” has snuffed out media coverage of Enrongate for the time being, Dubya tries to gut the SEC’s budget increase, making it impossible for the agency to fulfill the requirements of the recently-signed Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Absolutely shameful. And, as per usual, I think we can guess who’s the brains behind these latest shenanigans.

The Road to Perdition.

NYT editorialist Frank Rich deftly skewers Dubya yet again. “For [Bush’s] first pitch, he appeared against a blue background emblazoned with the repeated legend ‘Corporate Responsibility.’ Next came a red backdrop, with ‘Strengthening Our Economy’ as the double-vision-inducing slogan. What will be strike three – black-and-white stripes and ‘Dick Cheney Is Not a Crook’? Maybe this rah-rah technique helped boost the numbers back when George W. Bush was head cheerleader in prep school. But he’s not at Andover anymore. Where his father’s rhetoric gave us a thousand points of light, his lopped a thousand points off the Dow.”

The Ivy Cradle.

Much as the Bushes have derided Eastern elitist universities during their presidencies, it turns out Harvard kept Harken afloat during Dubya’s stint there. In related news, George Soros – another big Harken investor at the time – admits to David Corn he was “buying political influence” when he gave money to Harken. So much for Dubya’s business savvy.

Do as I Say, Not as I Do.

Dubya calls for the end of a corporate loophole he himself profited from back in his Harken days. Meanwhile, this being an election year (and since I’m sure their profiles aren’t doing so hot right now), the Senate voted unanimously on several measures to curtail corporate malfeasance, a number of which go further than Dubya desired.