spookie, the info from Snake Eyes makes your post a compelling idiot identification event cue once again. samo samo.
Monday, Feb. 11, 2002
Robert Rubin, the Dems' $40 Million Friend of Enron
Citigroup is paying Enron pal and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin a whopping $40 million a year to "advise on strategy" - while he continues to help Democrats undermine President Bush, the New York Times reported today.
The Democrats' involvement in the Enron scandal is stinking to such a point that even the Times, whose editorials and news articles appear much of the time to be press releases from the Democratic National Committee, has finally published something of a counterpoint to its anti-Bush rantings.
In a generally gushy account of Rubin - "an overpowering intellect," "the economic conscience of the Clinton administration" (!) - the Times is forced to admit:
* Rubin did indeed call the Treasury Department last fall but failed to bully the Bush administration into intervening for Citigroup client Enron, giving "comfort to the White House and to some conservative commentators, who said it was evidence that it was a prominent Democrat, not Republicans, who backed a government rescue."
* The Enron stink won't go away soon. Even a Rubin friend, financier Felix G. Rohatyn, admits "the impression is not great when it [Rubin's intervention] is on behalf of a company that has created the worst profile in the history of capitalism."
* Rubin "was a sounding board for Gov. Gray Davis of California during last summer's electricity crisis even as Citigroup worked for energy companies that were selling power to the state." The "conflicts were obvious," the Times confesses.
* Typical of the Clinton administration, Rubin had, and continues, close ties with the communist Chinese dictatorship. "As hosts of last fall's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the Chinese pointedly invited Mr. Rubin to introduce President Bush — an 'old friend' presenting a president still untested in Chinese eyes."
* The justification for Rubin's mind-boggling pay is murky. "He is involved in everything and nothing," the Times reports. Chuck Prince, Citigroup's chief operating officer, actually says, "He decides what he's interested in and has a way of drawing the company toward that."
* Rubin "runs a nonstop tutorial on economic policy" for Democrats, coaching obstructionist Senate plurality leader and Citigroup beneficiary Tom Daschle "and other leaders on ways to debunk Bush military spending and tax cuts."
The Times notes with amusement that "affronted" Citigroup clients have flooded brokers with "irate e-mails" about Rubin's campaign against President Bush's tax cuts and other policies.
Which brings up a good point - why should anyone who supports the president and tax cuts do business with Citigroup? #reply-19338076 |
