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American Morning
Bush Getting Ready to Unleash Tough Plan For Stopping Corporate Corruption
Aired July 09, 2002 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is getting ready this morning to unleash his tough plan for stopping corporate corruption. But does the businessman turned politician have to change his own corporate image first before investors trust him to clean up Washington?
Well, yesterday the president defended over and over again his sales of Harken Energy stock 12 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the corporate world, sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures. And the SEC's job is to look and it's to determine whether or not the decision by the auditors was the appropriate decision. And they did look and they decided that earnings ought to be restated and the company did so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Here with me for today's sound off from bustling Boise, Idaho, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel.
Hey, Bob, how you doing this morning?
BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm fine, Paula. Beautiful out here.
ZAHN: I bet it is. We're jealous.
And from Washington, former RNC communications director Cliff May.
Good morning to you, as well.
CLIFF MAY, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Good morning, Paula.
Good morning, Bob. It's early out there. You must have just winded out of the bar a few minutes ago.
BECKEL: Thank you very much, Cliff. I appreciate your saying that. ZAHN: All right, back to business, gentlemen, here.
Cliff, the president has a really tough task when he heads to Wall Street today, Democrats basically accusing him of being a hypocrite on corporate responsibility as they continue to dredge up these stock trades of Harken Energy's stock 12 years ago.
How can the president get around this? He holds a news conference yesterday and about -- that's about the only question that he had to confront. MAY: Yes, I mean that story has been just gone over and over again. It came out during the campaign, look, and that was something that was investigated, looked at. There were no charges. There were no penalties.
There's a real problem here, and unfortunately the Democrats are playing politics with it, and unfortunately a lot of the media are helping them to do so.
The president has an MBA. The president was a CEO. The president is in a unique position to try to clean up the mess. The fact of the matter is that thieves who wear Guccis should be prosecuted as aggressively as thieves who wear sneakers. And that's what we need, aggressive prosecution, improvement of regulations, closing of loopholes.
What we don't need is cheap politics. What we don't need is a power grab by Washington politicians. What we don't need is an end to the free enterprise system, which, as Churchill might have said, is the worst system in the world except for all the others that have been tried from time to time.
ZAHN: You say you may not need cheap politics, but I want both of you gentlemen to check out this ad that the Glover Park Group is releasing today. That's a Democratic consulting firm.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, guess what's happening in Washington? President Bush says he's getting tough on corporate fraud. But look at the record. Bush played a key role at Harken Energy. They used Enron style accounting to hide losses. Bush sold out early. The Bush team, Dick Cheney was CEO of Haliburton, more Enron style accounting. And Harvey Pitt, the accounting industry's top lawyer.
Bush thinks tough talk can hide the record. That's sly, like a fox.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: All right, Bob Beckel, Senator Corzine, a Democrat, was on the air earlier this morning and he said this isn't the way to go for Democrats. He said that this kind of criticism misses the point and he said if he was going to be critical of the president on one matter, it would be pushing him to fight harder for accounting firm oversight. BECKEL: Well, first of all, Senator Corzine is worth 150 million bucks, so I don't blame him for not thinking this is a good idea. Let me get back to what Cliff said for a second. The hypocrisy of us going over Bush's energy company, they, you all, Cliff, took Whitewater and ran that thing for eight years. This makes Whitewater look like a bad lemonade stand, number one. And number two, when you say that we ought to indict people with Gucci loafers on as well as sneakers, good idea. How about you get started with just one?
All I want to make my day is to see one of these corporate executives in handcuffs being taken down to jail and not just some black kid who's got a drug rap. And why not...
MAY: Yes, what...
BECKEL: Is George Bush, George Bush and Dick Cheney both, look, you know, we've said -- I was talking about this earlier, they're the party of diversity, you guys, the Republican Party. You've got a president and a vice president from two different oil companies. And the fact of the matter is these oil companies have not done their accounting right and Enron helped form your energy policy. It makes me feel real comfortable.
MAY: You know, you're just, I mean, all of this is apples and oranges, energy companies and WorldCom...
BECKEL: Apples and oranges?
MAY: ... and Enron. Absolutely. Look, what, look, a lot of investors have lost a lot of money and that, and the system absolutely needs to be fixed. And I think the Democrats are making a mistake not focusing on fixing the system, but trying to find a way to tar Bush and tar Cheney with the same brush.
Unfortunately, to tell you guys not to play cheap politics is like telling Jerry Springer not to interview transvestites. He wouldn't know what else to do with himself.
BECKEL: Us play cheap politics? Oh, yes.
MAY: Yes, exactly.
BECKEL: Look, I kept defending Clinton for eight years against your guys' assault.
MAY: I know...
BECKEL: As I've said before, I felt like the only fire hydrant at the Westminster Dog Show. You're going to have to defend Bush now and what...
MAY: OK...
BECKEL: ... and the rules that were in place, Cliff -- let's keep this in mind -- those rules were good rules that were violated by the president of the United States. ZAHN: Hey, there's a pull out...
MAY: Well, no. You don't know that the president violated any rule in the world -- there was no rule that you know of that he violated. By the way, as a matter of fact with the Whitewater, any number of people, including a sitting governor of Arkansas, went to jail as a result of Whitewater. That was good because there were prosecutions of corporate abuses. There should be prosecutions here, as well.
But don't accuse people of wrongdoing when you have no evidence, Bob.
ZAHN: Hey, Bob, there's a new poll out that would suggest that a lot of Americans believe that many of the mushrooming corporate scandals we're seeing today are as the result of Clinton policy.
BECKEL: They're blaming this on Clinton, too? My god...
MAY: Now, look, it's not Clinton's...
BECKEL: Hey, wait a minute, Cliff. Oh, this was a question... MAY: Go ahead.
BECKEL: Paula asked me the question.
MAY: Go ahead.
BECKEL: I mean I don't know when you're going to stop with Clinton. I mean he is like the gift that keeps on giving. It had nothing to do with the Clinton administration. The SEC...
MAY: I agree.
BECKEL: ... has been lax for a long time.
MAY: Right.
BECKEL: Wait, and, Cliff, I will agree with this, there does need to be an overhaul of the system and that system has not been doing the job it was intended to do, which was to protect investors.
MAY: You're right.
BECKEL: It has protected big fat cats, most of whom, I might add, support your party.
MAY: I'm not for decisive...
ZAHN: Cliff, you need to quickly react to another thing out of that poll that essentially says that Americans, by and large, trust Democrats more than Republicans to look after their interests. A quick rejoinder on that and then we've got to go.
MAY: All I would say is that it is important for Bush to make it clear that he is going to be very tough on corporate wrongdoers, on corporate thieves, and that he is going to take this very, very seriously. I think that's what you heard in the press conference yesterday. I think it's what you're going to hear when he makes his speech today. I think it's important that you pointed out, this was poll that showed that there were, that people were blaming Clinton. I'm not blaming Clinton. The president hasn't blamed Clinton. But the problems with the SEC, the problems with the laws, they've been around for a long time, not just since Bush became president.
ZAHN: All right, gentlemen, we have to leave it there.
BECKEL: And, Cliff, you didn't answer the question, old boy.
ZAHN: Hey, you know, he lucked out because we've got to move on to the weather, Bob. So will you hold him to that next time?
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Because that same poll showed that. So we will have to revisit that on another day.
BECKEL: All right, thanks a lot, you all.
ZAHN: Enjoy Boise, Bob.
BECKEL: OK. Thank you.
ZAHN: And you enjoy Washington, Cliff.
MAY: Take care. Thank you.
ZAHN: Thanks again for your time.
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