You might find this amusing.
A Midsummer Night's Talk Show
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, July 9, 2002; Page A21
A strange thing happened to my television the other day when a cable channel was reporting on why, back in 1990, George W. Bush filed a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission 34 weeks late. My screen went blank and then came back to something called the Coyote Network and a show called "Firing Squad," hosted by Chris Reilly.
At first the news seemed exactly the same, about a president who sold $848,560 in shares of Harken Energy Corp. two months before the company announced a big loss and the stock price dropped. As a company director, the president was supposed to file a timely report on the sale.
A decade ago, the president blamed the SEC for losing the relevant document. But at a news conference last week, his spokesman blamed the company's lawyers for a "mix-up."
I was ready to hear what this strange channel made of Bush's actions when I realized the discussion was ever so slightly different. It was exactly the same story, but the president under fire was Bill Clinton.
An oddly familiar Clinton spokesman called Lanny Begalaville was trying to defend his man. "The president has denied any wrongdoing, and I believe him," Begalaville was saying. "This is like getting caught driving 60 miles an hour in a 55-mile-an-hour zone."
Begalaville was facing off against a southern Republican congressman called Tom Starrbarr. Starrbarr, who also looked familiar, was having none of this.
"What happened here is so typical of Clinton," Starrbarr said. "He tells one story and when that one proves false, he tells a completely different story."
Reilly, the host, clearly didn't like Clinton, and he egged Starrbarr on. "Isn't this a story about a president who never takes responsibility for anything?"
"Chris, you're absolutely right," Starrbarr said with a big smile. "I'd contrast this president with George W. Bush. Remember what Bush said when he was running for reelection as governor of Texas back in 1998?"
"Actually, we have tape of that, congressman," Reilly said. "Let's run it." And they ran a real Bush ad from his 1998 campaign.
"For too long," Bush said, "we've encouraged a culture that says if it feels good, do it, and blame somebody else if you've got a problem. We've got to change our culture to one based on responsibility."
The screen went back to a triumphant-looking Starrbarr. "Bush would take responsibility for something like this," Starrbarr said. "He'd never try to blame the SEC or a bunch of lawyers for his problem."
Begalaville, Clinton's defender, was steaming. "Governor Bush was talking about the '60s counterculture back then," he said. "He never thought that sort of thinking applied to people on corporate boards. He knows those people. He was one of them. This is about a 12-year-old stock deal, an old, tired issue that the president's opponents keep dredging up."
"No, Lanny, this is an issue of holding the president accountable to high standards," Starrbarr replied. "We have a moral crisis in the corporate world and the president should set the right example."
Begalaville snapped back: "You know perfectly well that the SEC cleared the president on this thing. It's been used as an issue by every political opponent in every campaign in which he's run. This is an old, old story."
The host came back in high, man-of-the-people dudgeon. "Yeah," Reilly snarled, "it's an old story that the insiders make a pile and get cleared because they have connections. Right, Congressman Starrbarr?"
"Exactly, Chris," he said. "And that's why I'm demanding that an independent counsel look into this, and that Congress subpoena all the SEC records, all the Harken Energy records, and every one of the president's stock sales going back 20 years. At this moment of moral relativism in business, we need the president to live up to the standards. . . . "
Begalaville was turning purple and shouted: "That's an outrageous fishing expedition!"
Undeterred, Starrbarr kept going. "If President Clinton refuses to make all the relevant material public, he's obviously hiding something. And if citizens don't care how the president led his business life, we're talking about the death of outrage in this country."
"Our time is running out," said Reilly.
"Just 15 seconds Chris," said Starrbarr. "I want you to know I'd say everything I said tonight if a Republican president were involved in something like this."
"I know you would, congressman," Reilly replied. "I feel exactly the same way."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
