OT - Long Meandering Political Rant (Read at your own risk.)
If I were Bernie Schwartz, I would be telling the Republicans to stick it. (In fact, I do not have to be Bernie to do that, so I do it regularly <g>).
Frankly, I take Bernie at his word as supported by the record. He has been a lifelong Democrat. He has always supported the Democratic Party and its policies with significant contributions. Since he sold the old Loral, he has had a lot more money -- his own, not stockholders' -- to spend, and he has spent proportionately more on political contributions.
I fail to see anything sinister about this. I have seen no evidence of quid-pro-quo. And I have seen no evidence of his taking personal advantage of the visibility and access these contributions could give him.
What I do see are a lot of rabid, radical right-wingers (Eisenhower used to call them "The Old Guard") (I only encounter one of them with any regularity around here, shudder, most recently on the Gilder thread) trying to make something sinister out of practically nothing. I differentiate these from the vastly more common conservatives around the G*, Loral, and QCOM threads (where I regularly hang out) who are good, smart people with whom I can politely and reasonably converse with and agree about business and investments while we disagree about things political. I learn a lot from you guys.
It is possible to argue that Bernie's personal visibility has been bad for Loral, and that may be true. I don't think so. However, the same can be said for conservative CEO's, of which there is no shortage making large political contributions.
It seems to me that Bernie's political contributions have not had material effect on Loral's prospects. The broughaha over technology transfer, while it may be real, is not related to Bernie's contributions.
I'm sure we'll all want to read the Cox report to see what he says Bernie's role really was. And I'm just as sure some of us will disagree about what it means. Those who think Bill Clinton is the anti-Christ will surely point to this as evidence for everything including why their kids morals are declining. Kids morals have always been declining. And jealous, less successful people have always been taking cheap shots at successful people like Bernie.
P.S. I do not think Bill Clinton is the anti-Christ. In fact, while obviously not totally innocent by any measure, I don't even think his administration has been particularly corrupt even by modern standards, much less historical precedent. It would be interesting to see some real research into that. The administration of Ulysses S. Grant may take the top prize here, even if Grant himself did not profit and had to be financially bailed out by Sam Clemens' publishing his memoirs.
P.P.S. As far as Big Bill and the Twins getting out of hand, I love to quote Lyndon Johnson's comparison of his sexual exploits compared to Jack Kennedy's. He said, "I got more poon-tang by accident than he ever did by accident!" Bill Clinton is certainly a minor league player in that league.
P.P.P.S. While I am always happy to entertain criticism and discussion of ideas in any forum, I think all of us here would appreciate the inevitable, serious flaming to be done privately. My personal e-mail address is drew528@aol.com. |
