Was Bush really CEO of company he founded from 1975-1987?

[ILeft]

The CNN bio of Junior says so. Is CNN taking liberties with Junior Bush's resume or is CNN technically correct in this representation of the little Dictator's life? Just pisses me off- no gaps, just a neatly scrubbed Shrub:

Name: George Walker Bush
Birth date: July 6, 1946
Education: Bachelor's degree, Yale University, 1968; MBA, Harvard University, 1975
Military Service: Air National Guard, 1968-1973
Career: Founder/CEO of oil and gas company, 1975-1987; managing general partner, Texas Rangers baseball team, 1989-1998
Elected office: Texas governor, 1994-2000; U.S. president, elected 2000
Family: Wife, Laura; two daughters
Quote: "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them."

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/candidates/bush.new.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. i thought he had a couple oil companies and sat on the board

of another one?

actually I found this timeline that explains better

http://www.independent-media.tv/itemprint.cfm?fmedia_id=7073&fcategory_desc=The%20Zero%20and%20The%20Hero

[tcfrogs]

2. I see a couple of small gaps

But one is 1988, when he campaigned for his poppy. Right before he joined the group who bought the Texas Rangers.

[Cocoa]

3. Arbusto

although I'm surprised it lasted for 12 years, it was an oil exploration and they never found any oil.

[LTR]

4. Yeah, right

Another source:

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/george-w-bush/

George At Work
People like to assume that George got rich from oil speculation. It's a simpler and more inspiring explanation than the truth. He did launch an oil business, Arbusto Energy, in 1978. But it was a financial disaster from the very beginning and never turned a profit. Fortuitously, it got swallowed up in a 1982 merger with another energy company named Spectrum 7. The merger was engineered by a couple of Bush family friends. For some reason they opted to rescue the son of the Vice President of the United States from his own financial catastrophe and make him the CEO of the merged entity.
Four years later, Spectrum 7 was itself floundering underneath $3 million in debt. Which is when Harken Energy, yet another company run by a family friend, came in and bailed out Bush's enterprise a second time. George was given a fat wad of stock options and a $120,000 annual salary, but no actual work to do.

Technically, Bush's official capacity was as a member of the company's audit committee, charged with overseeing the major deals and transactions to ensure that everything was on the up-and-up. But as the son of the U.S. President, Bush's true function was to act as a lure for investment money. His task was schmoozing business contacts and outside investors, interested in converting cash into a friendly acquaintanceship with the President's offspring. And he was good at it. Hi, my name is George Jr. My Daddy lives in the White House. Let me show you around.

This investment capital really helped prop up Harken as it was secretly bleeding money out of every orifice. As a matter of fact, Harken was hiding massive debts through shell companies and byzantine practices masterminded by the now-infamous accounting firm of Arthur Anderson. One such deal was the putative "sale" of Aloha Petroleum to Intercontinental Mining and Resources Ltd in 1989. In actuality, IMR Ltd was just another company owned by three members of Harken's board. And the terms of the sale were extremely sketchy: although IMR agreed to pay an exorbitant $12 million for Aloha Petroleum, they wouldn't be required to make any payments for three years. Nevertheless, Harken immediately booked an $8 million profit.

Incidentally, he ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 1978.

[Connie_Corleone]

5. He had an oil company called Arbusto I think.

It failed miserably and was bought out by another company and I think they put Bush on the board because of his father's business contacts.

[punpirate]

6. Well, technically correct...

... but only sort of. Actually, he was CEO of two, both of them went bust (Arbusto and Bush Exploration), then he was involved with two more, not mentioned (Spectrum 7 and Harken).

They've surely gotten the quote wrong, though. I'm sure it was: "... fool me twice, won't get fooled again." :P

[clydefrand]

7. Well, didn't the Saudis or someone

associated with them pay for the this sham of a company that folded? CEO--Crazy egotistical ogre--yep he coulda done that.

[physioex]

8. Wahhhh??

Was Shrub sober between 75-87??

[tcfrogs]

10. Not until after that period

Doesn't he claim that he gave up drinking after a big binge for his 40th, which would be in July of 1986?

[physioex]

12. Exactly..so shouldn't everything be a blur....EOM

[NWHarkness]

9. Another CNN lie

Arbusto went bankrupt in 1982.

Those CNN whores will tell bald faced lies to keep from mentioning anything that makes the Boy King look bad.

[blm]

11. Harken...Bush sold his shares to Salem Bin Laden for massive profit.

Bin Laden was arrested in BCCI scandal. James Bath arranged the sale.

Why would CNN not print the name of Bush's company? Bushies don't want people to do searches?

[Braden]

13. arbusto

limited partnerships. Shell Corporations that conveniently wiped away juniors coke and alcohol years.

he was essentially unemployed for his thirties.