The Bush Coincidences (12/28/03)
by Dean Hartwell
Consider some of the news stories during the Bush Administration.
Months after the presidential election controversy in Florida, several leading newspapers combined their efforts into conducting a recount of the votes.
They planned to announce their results, which would show that Al Gore would have won had all the votes been recounted, in early September (http://www.bushwatch.com/gorebush.htm).
Right before the release of this news, terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with airplanes. When the news that Gore may well have won came out two months later, it briefly made front page news. It then became relegated to the backburner of the nation’s attention because of the attacks.
In another bit of news unfavorable to the Bush Administration, Enron (who’s CEO, Kenneth Lay, was a friend and heavy contributor to Bush) went bankrupt in late 2001 amid corporate malfeasance (http://feinstein.senate.gov/releases01/enron.htm). Evidence of other corporations’ wrongdoing came to light during this time. As a former businessman, Bush could not be pleased.
Just a few weeks later, Bush delivered his first State of the Union Address. By the time he finished, the media started talking about the “Axis of Evil” – Iran, Iraq and North Korea – and forgot about the corporate scandals (http://www.janda.org/politxts/State%20of%20Union%20Addresses/2001-2004%20Bush/AxisofEvil.htm).
In July 2003, columnist Robert Novak, acting on what he said was information from a source within the White House, publicly named and identified a CIA operative. In October, a senior Administration official admitted that two top Administrative officials called several Washington journalists and gave them the information (http://www.why-war.com/news/2003/09/28/dojinves.html). Some in Congress called for an independent counsel to investigate the matter.
Just a week after this disclosure, Arnold Schwarzenegger knocked this scandal out of the news by winning the special election for governor of California. Since then, the media have paid little attention to the ‘outing’ of the CIA operative.
And, finally, President Bush admitted the possibility in December 2003 that a subsidiary of Halliburton overcharged the government by $61 million in obtaining a contract to import gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/11/sprj.irq.halliburton/). Halliburton, of course, is the company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran and still collects a sizeable pension and benefits from.
As if on cue, just days later, the Administration announced the capture of Saddam Hussein. Newspapers ran headlines filling up the entire columns, leaving little, if any, room for the Halliburton story.
Is President Bush lucky or is there more to this curious timing of events?
It may simply be coincidence. But any more coincidences like these will require further investigation by the loyal opposition.