kermit
06-17-2005, 06:37 PM
Bush, who failed to properly report the transaction to the SEC until eight months after the deadline, was on the audit committee of Harken's board of directors but denied knowing of the upcoming negative quarterly report. He also claimed ignorance of a shell game in which Harken insiders purchased one of the company's major subsidiaries with money provided by Harken, fabricating a $10-million profit.
In the end, Bush was spared the fate of some other free-wheeling financial hustlers--insider trading charges--by a compliant SEC. It certainly couldn't have hurt that the SEC's then-chairman was appointed by Bush's father and that the SEC general counsel had been Dubya's own lawyer in 1989.
How can Bush now, with a straight face, tell the nation that he will order the SEC to brand as criminals those guilty of the same sorts of actions? As a matter of consistency, he should in the very least demand that Martha Stewart, a comparative innocent when judged by Bush family standards, be treated no more harshly than he was.
Indeed, if justice were consistent, Stewart, and perhaps even Lay, might be planning a run for the presidency. 1
In the end, Bush was spared the fate of some other free-wheeling financial hustlers--insider trading charges--by a compliant SEC. It certainly couldn't have hurt that the SEC's then-chairman was appointed by Bush's father and that the SEC general counsel had been Dubya's own lawyer in 1989.
How can Bush now, with a straight face, tell the nation that he will order the SEC to brand as criminals those guilty of the same sorts of actions? As a matter of consistency, he should in the very least demand that Martha Stewart, a comparative innocent when judged by Bush family standards, be treated no more harshly than he was.
Indeed, if justice were consistent, Stewart, and perhaps even Lay, might be planning a run for the presidency. 1