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July 09, 2002

Bush- "Not Exactly Black and White"

Forget Bush's big speech-- it was, in Tapped words, sound and fury signifying nothing.
..But his press conference yesterday nailed his ass to the wall, as this transcript shows. And the key queston was asked by a reporter right off the bat:

Mr. President, the war on terrorism-you made it very clear that it's not just a matter of seeking justice for offenders, but also preventing another act of terrorism against our country. So when it comes to corporate corruption, beyond calling for tough penalties, what can you say to investors around the country about what this administration will do to prevent abuses from occurring in the future?

Since Bush wants to just prosecute a few corporate scapegoats without making fundamental change that might interfere with a new party when peoples attention moves on, he had no answer. Bush wants to maintain that the "vast majority of CEOs in America are good, honorable, honest people" and, not answering the question, said they'd prosecute whoever broke the law.

When reporters followed up on prevention in the future, Bush actually came up with the lame response that his administration would be "calling on people's better nature, and I'll do some of that tomorrow as well."

Can you imagine if a liberal said anything remotely like that in regard to a crime issue? But then Bush doesn't really see this as a crime issue; in discussing his own finances at Harken, he said "in the corporate world sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures."
...Forget the particular accounting issues; Bush broke the law on filing required disclosures on time as mandated by law.
...Bush's not "exactly black and white" comment should rank the firestorm that met Clinton's infamous, "it depends on what 'is' is."

Posted by Nathan at July 9, 2002 01:18 PM

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