Conason points out that the White House communications office is disobeying Junior.
Spokesman Dan Bartlett said that the White House doesn’t have the records, although Bush himself certainly once did, and as President could surely request them again. The Harken board minutes would show whether and how he participated in the deceptive purchase of a company subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, by a firm that included the Harken chairman and other insiders.
On Monday, Bush seemed to indicate that he couldn’t remember his view of the Aloha scheme. Maybe he enthusiastically endorsed it, which wouldn’t look so good right now; or maybe he was the kind of "independent director" who yawned, collected his fees and stock options and rubberstamped management, which wouldn’t look so good now either. If he had opposed that Aloha deal, he would probably remember it well. And if he or his lawyers are keeping those yellowed board minutes in an old trunk anywhere, that’s one Pandora’s box they’re not opening.
Still, there are clues to be found in the publicly available documents. Harken’s proxy statement for its annual stockholders meeting on November 18, 1990, mentions aspects of the Aloha Petroleum sale. In a footnote on page 20, the statement explains that "the sale price was…approved by independent directors of HMC," or Harken Marketing Company, then a subsidiary of Harken Energy. Weren’t the "independent directors" of HMC identical with those on the board of Harken Energy, including George W. Bush? A glance at those proxy statements, available at the SEC’s EDGAR site , might refresh the President’s dim recollection.
I wonder if the whores will ever get embarassed for ignoring this stuff in the year 2000.
