Incidentally, I heard on the car radio that the number of people on the audit committee of which Bush was a member was...
3
Here's a piece from TNR. A few excerpts:
The financial problems at Harken predating Bush's stock sale are eerily reminiscent--or, one might say, preminiscent--of what's been happening in the last few months at Enron, WorldCom, and other companies that have been forced to admit they used accounting gimmicks to hide massive financial losses. Not only does this inextricably link Bush to the broad pattern of corruption now enveloping corporate America and, potentially, dragging down the economy, it also undercuts what has been one of his most important purported strengths: his business acumen...
Throughout his political career, Bush has cited his experience in corporate America as proof that he understands the world of business and is, by extension, a capable steward of the American economy. But if the "charitable" explanation for Bush's explanation is true--if Bush really had no idea about Harken's troubled finances--it casts the president's business experience in a far less flattering light, whatever the legal implications. Put simply, more important than whether Bush is guilty of insider trading, his Harken past shows him to be either lazy, or stupid, or both....
... As a member of the audit committee, Bush should have had access to the company books. He should have attended meetings in which company finances were discussed in detail. And he should have seen, up close, the audit reports being assembled by the company's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. In 1994, a reporter from The Dallas Morning News asked Watson, who served on the audit committee with Bush, if they had been briefed on the shameful state of Harken's finances. He said, "You bet we were." ...
...But the impact of Harken may depend ultimately on just which questions it raises in the public mind. Trying to argue that Bush broke the law could be futile, but trying to argue that Bush was an utterly incompetent businessman might stick...
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