Democrat's ties to big business...

[Power Wagon]

AFter reading some of the comments from some of our more vigilant members who have been watchdogging the connection between politicians and business, I've been sadly not surprised to discover that those who are so frantic to establish political guilt in the Enron situation have been totally silent about the following. After carping about me being "blind" to both sides, one would think they would have been diligently searching to root out corruption on the Democrat side of things. While the Enron probe has basically proved there to be absolutely no wrongdoing by the Bush administration and some decidedly bad influences peddled by the Clinton administration, the facts of the story below should concern everyone interested in government corruption.

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More Trouble for Dems and Global Crossing

Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002

WASHINGTON – Don’t expect most of the mainstream media to be all over this story, but Democrat National Chairman Terry McAuliffe could soon be in legal hot water over his sweetheart deal with Global Crossing.

Judicial Watch (JW), the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, will investigate the suspicious circumstances of the case. In a related development Monday, Global Crossing faces an investigation of its accounting practices by federal regulators, the Wall Street Journal reported.



Global Crossing recently filed for what has become the fourth largest bankruptcy in history. As NewsMax.com has reported, McAuliffe in the 1990s turned a $100,000 investment in Global Crossing into an $18 million profit.



The Securities and Exchange Commission last week asked the Bermuda-based company for corporate documents and a letter sent by a former finance executive that raised concerns that the company and its auditor, Arthur Andersen, misled investors about the accounting for long-term leases, the Journal said.





Global Crossing, which has given more to the Democrats than Enron gave to the Republicans, has had a cozy relationship with McAuliffe, ex-President Bill Clinton and other Democrats. The now-bankrupt telecommunications giant reportedly has given money to Democrat politicians who have salivated over the prospect of gaining political capital on the Enron story.



Judicial Watch, in its announcement, noted that McAuliffe did "political” work for company founder Gary Winnick. After his windfall profits, McAuliffe set up a golf outing for Winnick and then-president Clinton. Winnick later donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Presidential Library.



JW also cited reports in the Los Angeles Times that show Global Crossing’s bankruptcy resulted form the same type of corrupt accounting practices as Enron’s.



"Questions have also been raised about a $400 million dollar contract, set in motion by the Clinton Administration, awarded to Global Crossing by the Pentagon last year,” says a Judicial Watch news release.



The public interest firm Monday filed Freedom of information Act requests with government agencies concerning Global Crossing and is considering shareholders lawsuits against the company as well.



Here’s the bottom line:



"The big question,” stated JW Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman, "is what did Global Crossing’s Gary Winnick get as a result of his golf outing and million dollar gift to Bill Clinton. ”



Once again, alluding to suspicious coincidences, Klayman added, "Terry McAuliffe’s astonishing profit reeks of potential insider trading especially given his role in selling government favors for campaign contributions during the Clinton years. ”



Except for the Washington Times, the L. A. Times appears to be the only major mainstream newspaper to spotlight this scandal.



Washington’s establishment outlet, the Washington Post, which Monday headlined the refusal of former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay to voluntarily testify before Congress, reported nary a word about the Global Crossing scandal and the Democrat connection. Nothing was printed about the story over the weekend in the New York Times either.



Even the Journal has printed only the business side of the story without mentioning the Democrat political angle either in its news columns or on its normally aggressively conservative op-ed pages.



NewsMax.com will watch developments in this unfolding scandal and attempt to keep you posted.



To add icing to the cake, JW seeks to get as many citizens as possible involved in what may be shaping up as a battle between ordinary citizens (such as Global Crossing shareholders with modest portfolios) and, on the other hand, the privileged connection between the Democrat party and a communications corporation whose stock once soared higher than General Motors'.



Anyone with information about Global Crossing, Winnick or McAuliffe in this matter is invited to contact Judicial Watch at 202-646-5172.



Democrats in their internal memos have gleefully stated that Enron has the potential "to reduce confidence in the Bush administration, and Republicans in particular. ” This despite the fact that there is not one iota of evidence that the Bush administration did anything wrong.



If the chairman of the Democrat National Committee ends up on the wrong end of a courtroom cross-examination in the Global Crossing scandal, what happens to the "confidence” factor with regard to his party?



As radio talk show host Sean Hannity told NewsMax.com over the weekend, the question for McAuliffe is: What did you know about stock prices and about Global Crossing’s business affairs? And when did you know it?

 

[Sled Puller]

Been following this PW.



Have not seen much on the news, I wonder why???



Gene

 

[me4osu]

Soft Money

I am a republican, and I believe in fairness (unlike the mainstream media). Here is a good site to look at campaign funds: http://www.opensecrets.org/index.asp



It lists the contribution history of Global Crossing and unfortunately brother Jeb is in there too. Global Crossing initially contributed Rep. heavy then swung Dem. in the past two years. However, they have given quite generously to both sides despite the percentages.



Here is a story that opensecrets had on them: http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_40.asp

 

[illflem]

You guys would love it in Montana, the Demos have given up, none have filed for candidacy in the next election. Now we can only choose from conservative or Christian Republicans in the primary.

 

[Champane Flight]

All this.

All this does not mean a thing. At the time of all the political contributuions Enron was still a viable company, doing what all viable companys do ( contribute to whom is going to bump the buisness up). It is funny however that it sent every Republican out there scrambling for excuses and Enron ties to the Democratic party. It is likens to two little boys after wrong doing pointing their fingers at each other!



What angers me is that Lay refuses to testify! Every Enron official and execs from the accounting firm should be drug from under their desks and made accountable for their actions!

 

[me4osu]

Champane

What you fail to acknowledge is that the media and Democrats were the first ones to flail their arms about how much money Enron gave to Bush.



I do agree with you about the insignificance of who gives how much to whom. I don't like it either way. In fact, if you look at the link I provided previously, you can find that Bush used $68M (35% of his total fund) of fed. money and Gore used $83M (62. 5% of total). I would rather a candidate get most of his money from companies (ie. private sector) rather than the Federal Gov. (our tax dollars).



I know this is off subject, but...

As for politicizing the Enron debacle, here are some quotes from your buddy Tom:



Daschle:

"The last thing we should do is politicize this [Enron] scandal. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to get the facts and find out what we have to do to ensure that it doesn't happen again. We don't need to politicize it. "



(Sen. Daschle, CNN’s "American Morning," 1/30/02)



Fact Check:

On several occasions, Senator Daschle has politicized the Enron failure in his comments.



"I think that we are slowly ‘Enronizing’ the economy, ‘Enronizing’ the budget. We are -- we are taking the same approach Enron used in sapping retirement funds and providing them to those at the very top. That's exactly what Enron did, and I'd sure hate to see the United States do that, as well, but that seems to be -- to be the practice. "



(Sen. Daschle, press conference, 1/24/02)



"I don’t want to ‘Enron’ the people of the United States. I don’t want to see them holding the bag at the end of the day, just like Enron employees have held the bag. "



(Sen. Daschle, press conference, 1/23/02)



"I don't want to see happen to all of the country, to our retirees, what happened to the employees of the Enron Corporation. "



(Sen. Daschle, CBS’s "Face the Nation," 1/27/02)



I can hear Lhotha warming up another disjointed string of inconsistencies as I post this.

 

[LSchenck]

The irony in the Enron case is that the Dems jumped on Bush a little too early. Seems Enron gave lots of cash to both sides but the only real payback was from Chris Dodd, Clinton, et al. In fact of the top 18 recipitents of Enron money 8 are Democrats (source CSPAN this morning).



On another angle. I am getting tired of all the whinning from Enron employees that have lost their 401Ks.



First. I don't think it is possible to not know that you shouldn't put all your investment in one stock. In some of the interviews I have heard people admitted that they were counseled to diversify but they just couldn't help themselves.



Second. When you hear about how someone lost 2 million dollars, remember that they really lost only a hundred thousand or so (just a rough estimate for illustration). The "paper" value of the stock was just fake monopoly money. That was all they had invested so to say someone owes them millions is bogus.



I know a hundred thousand dollars may represent many years of work but their own greed got them in that position. Remember that when you start hearing calls for the government to pay them their lost retirement.

 

[Steve M]

While I agree and have high hopes for and also beleave Bush to be innocent of supporting his friend Kenneth Lay in any corrupt activities that have lead to the fall of Enron, it doesn't hurt to let the dirt diggers dig and come up with clean dirt so as to remove all doubt from those who are pointing fingers.

While the fingers here are all but pointed at the dems, and at this point I beleave rightfully so, I have but one question. Is Kenneth Lay a registered Democrat or Republican?