WHERE ARE BURTON AND DELAY ON HALLIBURTON? HYPOCRISY, AGAIN.
Karen,
Re: Cheney and his familiar, GWB. Caught red-handed, not one of them takes the blame. And they think Clinton was bad. He's beginning to look like a saint.
Clinton does look like the saint who suffered the witchhunt of a generation.
Where are Delay, Burton, Barr, Starr and their co-conspirators on the shameless antics of Tricky Dicky Cheney? No where to be seen....
dailyenron.com
Where Are Burton and DeLay on Halliburton?
Administration Mauled by Own Dog
Of Double Standards
JULY 1: Remember Whitewater - that two-bit, failed Arkansas real estate deal that dominated much of the Clinton's eight years in the White House? Republicans felt it represented such a serious ethical marker that it required six years of investigating costing some $65 million.
Back then, GOP leaders like Dan Burton and Tom DeLay regularly climbed in front of TV cameras and worked themselves up into moralistic hissy fits over Whitewater. They justified their non-stop investigations by saying that a President who conducted himself badly in business was capable of, well, who knows what!
While Bill Clinton is gone, Dan Burton and Tom DeLay are still in office. But their views on business ethics must have softened. We have heard nary a peep out of either man about the current Vice President's now suspect behavior while CEO of Halliburton (1995-2000.) Halliburton is under SEC investigation for cooking its books, a la Enron, under Cheney's command.
The money involved in the Whitewater deal would not have been enough to buy a fixer-upper in Hope, Arkansas. But the Halliburton deals now under investigation can be measured in the tens of millions of dollars.
So, where is the outrage? Maybe it's "different." Let's see:
- Clinton's Whitewater business deal occurred before he was elected President
- Cheney's Halliburton deals occurred before he was elected Vice President
Check.
- The accounting for Clinton's Whitewater loans raised questions
- Halliburton's accounting methods under Cheney have raised questions
Check.
- The Whitewater loans to Clinton were part of a regulatory (S&L) investigation
- Halliburton's financial statements are part of a regulatory (SEC) investigation
Check.
- During Whitewater, Republicans argued that Executive Branch agencies could not be trusted to investigate their own boss.
- SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, a Bush/Cheney appointee, is now investigating Halliburton and its former accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. (Andersen was one of Pitt's law clients before he was appointed to the SEC.)
Check.
- The Clintons lost money on the Whitewater deal.
- Cheney profited handsomely since his salary and bonuses were based on Halliburton's now-suspect financial statements.
No Check. Except for Dick Cheney - who received very large bonus checks for what is now alleged to have been artificially inflated Halliburton profits.
So, some enterprising reporter might want to ask Dan Burton and Tom DeLay to explain the differences - as they see them - between Whitewater and Halliburton. |
