In Mr. Bush's Neighborhood, a Peculiar Intersection

[seemslikeadream]

On the stump, the president can come across as a prairie populist, describing investment-banking practices as "fancy footwork" and calling the stock market boom of the 1990's feckless, "pie in the sky" investing.

Yet, as the grandson and nephew of patrician East Coast bankers - on his mother's side as well as his father's - President Bush has raised millions of dollars from Wall Street to finance his brief career as an oil wildcatter and his two presidential campaigns. And his fiscal policies, which include sweeping cuts in dividend and capital gains taxes, could be the most pro-Wall Street since Ronald Reagan began cutting taxes in 1981.

"I think the president has a love-hate relationship with the Eastern establishment and that includes the money part of it," said Kevin Phillips, author of "American Dynasty," a critical account of the Bush family's business and financial ties. "He doesn't like the Wall Street stereotypes who are the gray flannel Eastern types. He didn't like them at Andover, and he didn't like them at Yale."

Indeed, the president's family tree mirrors Wall Street's evolution over the past century. His great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, founded his own investment bank, G. H. Walker & Company, in 1900; several mergers later, in 1978, it was acquired by Merrill Lynch. An uncle on his mother's side, Scott Pierce, was a former president of E. F. Hutton, a brokerage firm that was acquired in 1987 by Shearson Lehman (now part of Citigroup); his uncle Jonathan J. Bush ran a small money management operation that was later sold to Riggs Bank; and a second cousin, George Herbert Walker IV, is a managing director at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Bush's younger brother, Marvin, manages a series of hedge funds in suburban Virginia.

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http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040822/ZNYT01/408220461/1001/BUSINESS

[cornermouse]

1. A hint.

The prairie populist is a fabrication/a physical lie.

Bush, like any other con-man or thief, is trying to distract you with his words while he pockets the prize.

[bahrbearian]

4. That made me think

If they call Kerry a Flip Flopper, then Chimpy can be a Flim Flamer.

[PCIntern]

2. Doesn't anyone else find it strange

that he has two brothers named: Marvin and Jonathan?

Does he have a third brother Moishe?

Disclaimer: I'm Jewish, so don't start in...

But really.



(Edited for spelling)

[HEFFA]

3. This article also highlights a critical difference between Bush & Kerry

I most admire people who are capable of seeing themselves for what they truly are. That is, I believe that far too many people point their fingers at others and judge their actions according to standards that they, themselves, can't or don't even meet. My Grandfather was famous for saying, "When you point your finger at others, remember that there are three fingers pointed right back at you." I've always remembered that and tried to live my life according to this simple philosophy. Look for the good in people, but always strive to live up to the same standards that you would demand of others.

This is the critical point. I honestly believe that GWB is incapable of living up to the standards that he sets for others. This is, IMHO, true on at least two levels: 1) he believes that he does not need to be accountable to anyone else 2) he's too damned stupid to realize that he is a hypocrite.

The body of evidence that would support my assertions is so vast that it hardly requires me to outline it here, but one glaring example is at the forefront of our public consciousness at present. How in the world can Bush (and his minions, and his misguided followers) make such harsh criticisms of Kerry's service in Vietnam when he avoided service altogether? When Kerry was dodging bullets and winning medals while in Vietnam, the shrub was AWOL somewhere in Texas, and NOW he has the absolute gall to question the service of another (especially someone like Kerry)? Un-****ing-believable! This is a case study in hypocrisy for all the ages.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. One thing the Vietnam lies show is there is such a thing as bad publicity

The contrast is between Kerry (highly visible service in Vietnam, and then protesting after it, which means there are people who will do anything to make him look bad) and Bush. For him, the reaction from the Vietnam era is 'George who?'; yet this has let him get away with deserting his unit - because there's no written record saying he did do something wrong, just a lack of evidence that he did what he was meant to. Almost unbelievably, some people think this mean Kerry is the one 'unfit for command', when in fact it's Dubya who should be doing time in a military brig. But the claims of the Swift Boat Kerry-haters, despite going against official records, get listened to more than the ghost-town silence of Bush's supposed comrades.

[Journeyman]

6. If the boom of the '90s was "pie in the sky" investing. . .

why is George Dumbya so adamant that our Social Security money should get tossed in the mix?