"Many of Enron's underhanded tactics (such as the infamous, off-book partnerships)
are enshrined in law. Americans can count on the Bush administration
to work assiduously to keep them enshrined.
The real scandal is that Enron's relationship to government is not the exception but
the rule -- just business as usual. Another homegrown example is Crescent Real Estate
Equities Ltd., familiar to Houstonians as the
Fort Worth company whose officials promised to build a badly needed convention
center hotel here and then went back on their word.
For years Crescent's principals did everything they could to help George W. Bush
and put him first in the governor's mansion and then in the White House. In turn, Bush's
backers at Crescent were rewarded with tax cuts and sweetheart deals involving state
property and pension funds.
Bush says he never spoke of these deals to his buddies and partners at Crescent,
and of course he didn't have to. Bush's minions knew instinctively to play ball when
the Crescent boys showed up with a bat.
AlthoughBush promised repeatedly to subsidize religious faith and inject it into every
sphere of American life, his cronies at Crescent are suing a Houston church to keep
it from leasing city-owned quarters in Greenway Plaza. The plaintiffs allege that
churchgoers are bad for business if they get too close and are
orse to have around than rowdy sports fans, rock concertgoers and other denizens
of Compaq Center.
I'm inclined to agree, but if the big shots at Crescent are so hostile to church people,
why did they back Bush? The answer might be that they (and presumably their candidate)
regarded all the pious rhetoric as so much slop to be thrown to the faithful and never intended
it to be taken seriously or to get in the way of big
business and its profits."
Above is an excerpt from the article, "The real scandal is business as usual "
Houston Chronicle
Jan. 27, 2002, 6:09PM
By JAMES HOWARD GIBBONS
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
chron.com |
