A decade ago talk show personality Rush Limbaugh asked
listeners if they could trust then president Clintonto reform health care.
Health care reform was to be the crowning achievement of Clinton’s
presidency and by linking the Whitewater land deal and alleged
extramarital affairs to reform, Limbaugh was able to make the
president’s character the central issue.  Repeatedly, he asked if
the president’s past warranted trust.

Now another president, mired in a series of business scandals, is asking
for trust and promising reform.  President Bush says he wants to “restore
faith in the integrity of American business.”   Bush, the first president with
a MBA, promised to bring modern business practices to the White House.
But, has this president shown we can trust him to dealhonestly in reforming
business’ worst practices?

Bush’s first job was as chief executive of Spectrum, a small Texas oil
company propped up by investments from Bush family friends.  After losing
millions Spectrum was purchased by Harken Energy in 1986.  For his
debt-ridden company, Bush received Harken stock options.

This lucrative deal was further sweetened when Harken, a company that
never sank a single offshore well and with no overseas experience, signed a
contract with the government of Bahrain for offshore drilling.  Coincidently,
Bahrain was named permanent principle allied base in the Middle East by
then President George H.W. Bush shortly after the Harken deal.

George W. Bush, a Harken board member, was on the company’s audit
committee in 1989 when the Securities and Exchange Commission took them
to task for hiding $10 million in losses.  Harken reported false earnings by
selling a subsidiary to insiders, who borrowed money from Harken itself for
the transaction.  A year later, when the company president was publicly
predicting their most profitable year, but privately telling the board of serious
problems, Bush sold his Harken shares for $848,000.  Shortly thereafter Harken
reported a $23 million quarterly loss and the stock plummeted, today trading for
less than 50 cents a share.  Harken’s accounting firm at the time of the Bush
sale was Arthur Anderson, auditors for Enron and WorldCom.

Bush claimed he had no insider information the stock was going to drop and
had he known would not have sold it.  So, instead of losing $250,000, Bush’s
timely sale resulted in a 250% profit over his stock’s original value.

As reported Bush failed to notify the SEC of the transaction within the ten days
required, waiting over seven months.  An SEC investigation of Bush was conducted
by James R. Doty, formerly Bush’s personal lawyer who helped him invest Harken
earnings in the Texas Rangers.  No charges were filed.  Bush later sold his interests
in the baseball team for $18 million.

President Bush asks us to trust he will reform business practices that resulted in
scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Halliburton, Andersen, Merrill Lynch and others.
Yet, how can we trust him to punish political contributors who grew rich using
the same shady dealings that made him a multimillionaire?