In Your Nation's Capital there is a syndrome known as "The August Story." This is a story which will sustain journalists, politicians, cable news anchors, talking heads, and - dare we say it - political columnists, through the dog days of August when the Congress is on vacation, the President is out of the city, and France is shut down.
To review the bidding, last summer's August Story was the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy business. The summer before that (2000) the August Story was the Dueling Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
By the way, I went back to the Mullings Archives to remind myself what WAS going on in August of 2000 and came across one of my all-time favorite columns, written after my first night in Los Angeles to cover the Democrats' convention:"Welcome to the Hotel California."
The Summer before THAT, August was taken up with the triple stories of Al Gore v. Bill Clinton, George W v. Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton v. Rudy Giuliani (who was running for Senate at that time, prior to being diagnosed with prostate cancer).
And, in August of 1998 we were in the middle of the Mother-Of-All-August-Stories: Bill & Monica.
The National Democrats and the press corps as a whole are doing everything possible to make George W. Bush's tenure as a director of Harken Energy this year's August Story.
The latest volley was a piece in the Washington Post (front page, but below the fold) by Mike Allen which was headed: "Bush Took Oil Firm's Loans as Director; Practice Would Be Banned in President's New Corporate Abuse Policy."
The story points out that Bush got a loan to buy stock in � Harken Energy. This used to be considered a good thing, having employees, officers, and directors showing their dedication to their company by actually investing in their company.
But down in the third graf, the usually precise Allen wrote, incorrectly:
"Corporate loans to officers came under scrutiny after WorldCom . . . revealed it had lent nearly $400 million to Bernard J. Ebbers to buy the company's stock when he was chief executive. He resigned in April as the stock price tumbled."
Uh. No. Bernie Ebbers (as detailed in Mullings of May 1, 2002: "Greed" had bought a half billion dollars worth of companies for his own account and had pledged WorldCom stock to the banks as collateral.
When the stock price of WorldCom began to drop, the banks wanted more collateral. To avoid selling his WorldCom shares to cover his loans, or - perish the thought - selling the companies he had purchased, Ebbers convinced WorldCom to lend him $400 million.
In one case director Bush borrowed money from the corporation to invest IN the corporation. In the other case, CEO Ebbers borrowed money from his corporation to buy OTHER corporations - for himself.
The New York Times pointed out, in a piece by Jeff Gerth and Richard W. Stevenson that Bush, unlike Ebbers, "ultimately returned the stock he acquired this way, canceling the loans."
Hardly a parallel.
Oh, another minor point on the Harken Energy August Story: We have watched the parade of corporate executives who have been paraded in front of Congressional panels only to invoke their rights against self-incrimination under the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
When the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating private-citizen Bush's sale of stock, he not only answered all their questions, but he waived attorney-client privilege so the SEC could talk to ANYONE about ANYTHING before rendering their decision.
You haven't heard or read that? What a surprise.
Mullster Ken Daleki sent along a link to a State Department page titled, "Myths and Facts about US Immigration Standards for Saudi Arabian Immigrants"
Here's the first entry:
MYTH: Most Saudi applicants never come into contact with a US citizen until stepping off the airplane onto U.S. soil.
FACT: Over the past year, 45% of visa applicants in Saudi Arabia have been personally interviewed.
Um. I guess it depends on what your definition of "most" is, mostly.
A greatSecret Decoder Ring page today:
- A pretty funny explanation of the Title;
- Links to the Washington Post and New York Times Harken Energy stories;
- The full text of the 5th Amendment,
- A link to that State Department site, and
- The etymology of the phrase "dog days".
If you are working at a lobbying firm, a government affairs office, a coalition, or a PAC you should take a
look at this page to see how advertising in Mullings might serve your organization very well:
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