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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (9018)	3/20/2004 4:21:04 PM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

Some people try to promote the idea that junior hardly knew kennyboy before he was elected. This is not true. _________________ Bush, Lay Shielded Errant TX Businesses From Lawsuits --------------------------------------------------- With a thicket of high-profile lawsuits pending against Enron and its henchmen, it’s time to review President Bush and Ken Lay’s ménage a trois with tort reform. In a January 1994 speech following his election as chair of Houston’s leading business booster group, “Kenny Boy” Lay raised the topic of lawsuit abuse in conjunction with his lifelong obsession with defending shareholder interests. Denouncing run-away litigation, Lay warned that, “Many of us who love this city and state wonder whether it is prudent for our shareholders to keep operations or headquarters in this state.” Later that year, Lay wrote two things that kept Enron in Texas: (1) His first check to the newly formed Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC; and (2) A letter to newly elected Governor George W. Bush urging him to slash legal liabilities to prevent corporate flight from Texas. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Although neither one of them advertises it now, Bush and Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) both count Ken Lay among their top donors. The largest single source of Bush’s gubernatorial money was Enron’s PAC and executives ($312,500). Another 10 percent of the $41 million that Bush raised for his gubernatorial races came from the tort-reform lobby—led by TLR. Bush gave Lay and other tort-sensitive big donors a fast payback after he won his first election with just 53 percent of the vote. In his first months in office, Governor Bush fast-tracked tort reform by declaring it a legislative “emergency.” Tort laws that Bush signed in 1995 include: Slashing punitive damages (used to punish the worst wrongdoers) to $200,000 or two times the economic damages inflicted; Ending treble damages to punish deceptive trade practices on sales exceeding $500,000 or involving personal injuries or deaths; and Raising the threshold needed to be held jointly liable from 11 percent of total re-sponsibility for an injury to 51 percent. Like Lay, many wealthy interests simultaneously bankrolled Bush and the TLR PAC, which has raised $5,610,315 to influence Texas politicians since its 1994 inception. More than half of this TLR PAC money ($2,850,834) came from just 20 donors—most of whom made fortunes in toxic chemicals, construction, energy or other dangerous industries with elevated legal liabilities. The only non-tycoon among TLR’s top-20 donors is the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants ($83,334 to TLR). In fact, four of the Big Five accounting firms (including Enron auditor Arthur Andersen) directly contributed to TLR’s PAC, pushing its total accountant industry contributions to $168,097. more -- tpj.org