Lieberman Another Enron Lackey

[liberalmike27]

Joe Lieberman is one luminous example . Remember the senator's display of moral indignation, wagging his finger and expressing disgust at Enron's fast-and-loose accounting practices? But Joe, Baby, did you forget? You helped loosen them! You remember Ken Lay, don't you, Joe? He's one of your campaign contributors, along with al those other Wall Street pals of yours who put a quarter-million bucks into your campaign pockets over the years.

Remember that bill that Ken and a bunch of other high-flying CEOs from the "new economy" wanted? They were running a little "stock-options" scheme that let them take tens of millions of dollars each out of their companies in annual pay, yet not report this to shareholders as a cost to the corporation. Mind you, those millions are in addition to their salary, bonuses, and other cash payments. (CEO pay packages are like a salad bar. First comes the base salary, which is the plain lettuce. Then they add on a dipper-full of blue cheese dressing, plus a rasher of bacon bits. Then they say, oh, what the hell, go ahead and put a cheeseburger on it too. The stock options are the cheeseburger.)

But those tiresome, regulatory knit-pickers over at the SEC thought investigators had a right to see this sizable shift of their corporate funds going to the CEO's pockets, so the SEC was going to require that stock options be accounted for on the books.

Fearing that investors (those pesky busy-bodies) might balk at such lavish outlays for CEOs if they saw them in black and white (or red), Kenny Boy and the rest came running to you, didn't they , Joe, shrieking that such disclosure would stifle executive ingenuity, would drive a stake through the heart of entrepreneurship, would cause the new economy to collapse, and would mean that they'd be so poorly paid they'd have to buy next year's Escalade without the sunroof. So you came to their relief, didn't you, Joe, by sponsoring a bill that forced the SEC to back off, letting CEOs keep getting their cheeseburgers without accounting for them. Yes, you did .

Thieves in High Places,

by Jim Hightower pp. 59-60

Brackets and their contents mine.

Like I've always said, there was something I didn't like about Liberman from the start. He's just too much like Bush, they are both in cahoots to the Enron's of the world. Funny, 70 million the total amount of bank robberies in this country this year, and the corporate scandals have robbed Americans for tens of Billions. Bank Robbers can get life in prison, but so far, these low-lifes have avoided prison, except for one, and if they do go to prison, they will usually get a couple of years in Club-Fed, for ripoffs often amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lieberman Sucks.

[renie408]

1. Lieberman is the devil

And besides, who could stand to listen to him whine for four years? God, he has the most unfortunate voice.

[Flying_Pig]

2. Back in 2000, I reviewed Lieberman's voting record.....

and while there were many good votes, there were enough pro-Enron/PNAC/Wall Street type votes to make me question why in the hell Al Gore had chosen this guy. It became obvious to me later, that Al chose him hoping to glean the Florida Jewish-retiree vote.

As time has gone on, it's also become more apparent, that Holy Joe is as corrupt as they come. He's a solid DLC'er, and an "Israel -firster". His philosophy on the Middle East, exactly matches that of PNAC'ers, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, and Bolton, all Likud ex-employees and supporters. I cannot support anyone who puts the interests of this country "second" to another nation, based on their religious affiliation.

In addition, being in bed with PNAC, the most corrupt, fascist, organization since the Nazi Party, does not exactly endear him to me. As far as I am concerned, Joe is not a Democrat, and on some very important votes and issues, he has betrayed this country, and its citizens.

[liberalmike27]

3. Yep

I've been saying that Lieberman was like a ball and chain to Gore's campaign. I thought it outlandish when he actually assessed the reason for the loss as Gore's move toward "populism" at the end.

Gore made several other mistakes, still won, but Lieberman was the worst one.

Lieberman is the only Democratic contender to get booed at each and every debate. I'm surprised and I question his position on top in the national polls, and I have to only guess that it is the name recognition from the Gore campaign. Luckily, in the states where people are paying attention, it is Kerry and Gephardt.

The voice, you are so right. But for some reason, and I am a Southerner, Edwards voice bothers me a little too. I kind of wish he'd stop telling that "mill-worker" story so much. It sounds patronizing.

[renie408]

4. I dunno...

Neither the voice nor the story bug me much. I do think he is going to have to get some fresh material pretty soon, but I seem to notice that a lot of the candidates recycle their speeches and say roughly the same thing from event to event. You have to remember that at this point, many people haven't even HEARD of John Edwards, much less his history. Those of us paying attention have heard their stories over and over, but right now there are more people listening every day that need to hear what we already have.

[liberalmike27]

5. True

Hey, I'd vote for Edwards. I think he may have gotten that complaint from others, as he has softened the southern accent lately.

I'll vote Green again, or even Socialist to avoid voting for Lieberman (perhaps Kerry, due to the S&C connection to Bush).

[wryter2000]

6. I'd vote for Edwards

Funny, I've been enjoying the accent. Maybe I haven't heard enough from him yet for it to get on my nerves.

[renie408]

7. I can't even hear it

Everybody keeps talking about his 'accent' and I can't even hear it!! I guess living 'down here', I hear it all the time.

[cosmicdot]

8. like, what happened to the Gov'tal Affairs Committees Enron hearing?

Committee Chair Joe really did a rapid response number on Ken Lay, eh?

NOT!

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york052402.asp

[oasis]

9. kick