Politicians: Corporate Courtesans

[Joanne98]

George W. Bush has done to America what he did to Texas! Bush is another politician on a serial list of corporate courtesans. Clinton preceded him. Who will follow him?

Bush announced his candidacy for the Texas governorship on November 8, 1993 with a campaign based on self-reliance and personal responsibility rather than dependence on government. <1> (Bush: 1993 financial statements).

With Karl Rove’s genius (compassionate conservatism, religious-rhetoric, strategized staging) and huge corporate contributions (no campaign limits in Texas), Bush was elected Texas’ first Republican governor (January 17, 1995 to December 21, 2000) since Reconstruction. <2> Campaign wizardry diverted voter-focus to moral issues (not the government’s business). Bush said he was “humbled and honored” that so many people responded to his message. <3>

Ken Lay and Enron attorney, Joe B. Allen, were Bush’s “top fund- raisers” and would be Bush’s “top corporate contributors” in 2000. <4> Thomas Hicks, of HM Capital Partners LLC, had donated $146,000 to Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns. Richard Rainwater had donated $100,000. <5> Hicks paid lobbyists ($50,000 to $110,000) to enact legislation to create the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), a Public-Private Partnership, privatizing the university’s abundant financial assets of $13 billion. Hicks was already on the Board of Regents due to his contributions to Governor Ann Richards. Hicks gave Bush a belated $25,000 <6> for which Governor Bush appointed him the UTIMCO chairman. <7> Other board members had contributed between $7,000 and $141,000. <8>

Under Hicks’ direction and without public oversight, $525 million was invested into crony corporations including: <9>

Carlyle Group, Maverick Capital Fund ($210,273 to Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns), Bass Brothers Enterprises ($215,000 to Bush, financed Harken Oil’s Bahrain venture), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (joined Hicks in a $1.5 billion takeover of Regal Cinemas), Evercore Partners (joined Hicks in a $900 million buyout of television stations), American Securities Partners (received UTIMCO funds several months after selling 11 radio stations to Hicks). <10> <11>

Carlyle Partners II, the defense contractor’s fund, got $10 million. Bush worked for Caterair, a Carlyle subsidiary, the year before. George H. W. Bush was also associated with Carlyle. <12> Hicks undoubtedly received sufficient management fees through these “investments” for his 1998 purchase of the Texas Rangers for $250 million. <13> <14> All assets, public or private, are vulnerable to politically-facilitated transfers into corporate coffers. President Bush has repeatedly attempted to privatize Social Security. See this site for additional corroboration on Bush’s value system.

In 1997, Bush signed legislation authorizing Texas cities to “impose new taxes to finance sports facilities.” Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and City Manager John Ware promoted this tax bill which cost voters $230 million for a new upscale arena for the Hicks-owned Mavericks and the Dallas Stars. Richard Rainwater (Crescent Realty) had a stake in the Dallas Stars, principally owned by Ross Perot Jr. Afterwards, City Manager Ware went to work for Hicks. Mayor Kirk’s wife owned $500,000 in stock options in a Hicks company. <15> Within six months, the Bush political fund received: “$37,000 from Hicks, $11,000 from Rainwater’s Crescent Realty and $5,000 from Ross Perot Jr.” Hicks and Perot developed hotels, stores, restaurants, and office space on the fifty acres adjacent the arena. <16>

In addition to “funneling” UTIMCO money to cronies, the Texas’ Teacher Retirement System (TRS) which manages the pension fund (over $100 billion) for the state’s 800,000 public school teachers was also targeted for Bush cronies. <17> On September 5, 1995, Bush appointed Ronald G. Steinhart of Dallas as the presiding officer of TRS. <18> Without any public bids on two of the sales, the Fund sold two office buildings and a mortgage on a third to Rainwater’s Crescent Real Estate Equities Company (created 1994) in 1996 and 1997 at a $70.4 million loss. “At the time of at least one of the sales, Bush owned about $100,000 worth of Crescent stock.” <19> Harvard Management Company, a Harken investor, also benefited from bargain real estate from the Texas Teachers Retirement System. <20>

Bush’s 1998 gubernatorial re-election fundraising efforts set a record – $25 million. <21> He was the first Texas governor to win consecutive four-year terms. Corporate contributors depended on Bush to protect and even lie under oath for them. “By the end of 1999, the Bush campaign had raised $69 million, which exceeds the total amount raised by both Clinton and Dole (not counting Federal matching funds) combined for the entire 1996 presidential race.” <22>

The Texas Chemical Council (TCC) and it members contributed $2.2 million in the Texas elections of 1996 and 1998. More than $1 million went to members of the Texas legislature. Governor Bush received the most TCC-affiliated money ($115,871). The Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman got $24,900. TCC members paid $8.7 million to 222 lobbyists just in 1999. DuPont (released more than 40 million pounds of toxins in Texas water, land and air) paid 21 lobbyists up to $1.2 million. According to the EPA, the TCC trade group released 187 million pounds of toxic wastes into the Texas environment in 1996. <23> Despite their claims, power-seeking politicians don’t care about the environment.

That’s how the socially-incestuous, tit-for-tat, ruling-class elite obtain power, exploit public funds and confiscate land, money, guns and children. Corporate cronyism allotted Bush, the “Crown Prince of Privatization,”<24> “the largest presidential war chest in American history (at least $117 million) for 2000, due to bundling, a tactic for circumventing federal election campaign limits. <25> This was in addition to what each of the parties raised.
Continued>>>
http://novakeo.com/?p=1503