Bush's Guard Service May Affect Miers Nomination

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1005-05.htm

Published on Wednesday, October 5, 2005 by the Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

Bush's Guard Service May Affect Miers Nomination

A former Texas Lottery official said he wants to talk to senators about the Supreme Court nominee's role in covering up his Bush's record
by Ken Herman

WASHINGTON - A former Texas lottery official, who claimed that then-Gov. George W. Bush's desire to cover up his National Guard record helped steer decisions about a key lottery contract, said he wants to talk to senators about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' possible role in that effort.

"If I were to be subpoenaed to come to the thing, I would come," said Lawrence Littwin, who filed a lawsuit after he was fired as the lottery's executive director in 1997. "I would say the committee, I think, would be interested."

Littwin claimed in a federal lawsuit that lottery operator GTECH held sway over the Texas Lottery Commission because former GTECH lobbyist Ben Barnes was involved in helping get Bush into the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

GTECH, which settled the suit in 1999 and paid Littwin $300,000 without admitting wrongdoing, said in court filings that Littwin's Guard-related claims were "preposterous."

..more..

[G_j]

1. ~~

[mountebank]

2. Kick. Once we know who's questioning Miers, we hit em hard with this. n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

3. Isn't Litwin dead yet?

[Octafish]

4. The Smartest Man I Ever Met.

Who she hang out with?

Anyway, The Village Voice pegs into your story, G_j:

The Whistleblower and Harriet Miers

Questions linger about Court nominee's time with Texas Lottery

by James Ridgeway, with Isabel Huacuja
October 4th, 2005 3:12 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sooner or later, senators pondering Harriet Miers's qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge will want to inquire into the byzantine dealings of the Texas Lottery Commission in the late 1990s, when she was its chair.

SNIP...

The story goes like this:

Apparently in January 1996, then Texas governor George Bush received an anonymous letter claiming that Nora Linares, director of the Texas Lottery Commission, was in cahoots with a former employer and a boyfriend to rip off the commission. Supposedly, the boyfriend, convicted on an unrelated federal bribery charge, was using state equipment and personnel to work on a private contract he had with Gtech. That's the company contracted to carry out the Texas lottery. According to reports in the Houston Chronicle from that time, Linares claimed she knew nothing about this, even though the boyfriend was running his business out of her cousin's New Mexico apartment address.

At first, Bush and his then assistant Miers did nothing, but eventually Miers was sent over to the commission to straighten things out. This raised eyebrows at the time, since Miers's law firm represented a company which had a major contract with the lottery. Linares was fired, and in March 1997 the commission put the Gtech contract up for re-bid. Then in June, one Lawrence Littwin, a Democrat, was hired to run the lottery, which had been set up in 1992. At the time, Miers, now chair of the lottery commission, said of Littwin, "His extensive business, technical and lottery experience, his knowledge of lottery products offered by vendors, and his knowledge of the procurement process will be of great benefit . . . . He is a man of integrity who will further develop and maintain strict controls at the commission and insure operations that are above reproach."

When Littwin took over he received a report from the state auditor critical of both Gtech and the lottery commission for failure to conduct proper accounting. Littwin hired the firm of Deloitte and Touche to run more audits, and they allegedly revealed that Gtech had seriously violated its contract. His investigation also revealed what were described as illegal campaign contributions. At that point, according to Littwin, Miers and other commission members ordered him to stop the investigation.

The upshot of the affair was that Gtech, even though not the low bidder, got its contract back, and according to Littwin never corrected its auditing breaches. Littwin was fired that October, after only five months on the job. The commission would only say it had "lost confidence" in him. The personnel files say he was dismissed for "reasons unknown."

CONTINUED...

http://villagevoice.com/news/0540%2Cwebmondo2%2C68584%2C6.html

Do you have a license for your minkey?

[Samantha]

5. Perhaps we should send some suggested questions to John Kerry

but he probably will have no problem coming up with the right questions on his own ...

That's what I call poetic political justice ... the idea of Kerry grilling Miers about her maneuvers to quash Bush*s guard service problems. Of course, she was his personal attorney, so she would claim privilege and not answer. Still, we would get to see her squirm and the questions would once again be "out there" in the public.