(…)at a time when the dimensions of the Water Boy’s deficits were appearing endemic, Calculated Risk noted Cox [his own congressman!] had been pointing to the Clinton administration borrowing from the fund fueled by mandatory payroll deductions for Social Security contributions as giving off some ‘false’ impression – of prudent stewardship, I suppose.

Yes, I recall. I also recall prior appointees…

1) Harvey Pitt
2) William Donaldson

… similarly cast “free market” adherents whose bios generally indicated predilection to look the other way. Pitt’s job as far as I could tell was kick significant Enron (and accompanying Texas Energy complicity in “Ca. energy crisis) accountability down the road, if not bury it.

And they did… both. BushCo has never had to answer for Enron, an enterprise for which they not only looked the other way, but actually supported and enabled.

In particular, I recall one of Pitt’s early post-Enron moves towards “accountability”:

Shortly before William H. Webster was appointed to head a new board overseeing the accounting profession by the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, he told the commission’s chairman, Harvey L. Pitt, that he had until recently headed the auditing committee of a company that was facing fraud accusations, Mr. Webster recounted today.

Mr. Pitt chose not to tell the other four commissioners who voted on Mr. Webster’s nomination that day, according to S.E.C. officials. White House officials said they, too, were not informed about the details of Mr. Webster’s work for the company.

The small publicly traded company, U.S. Technologies, is now all but insolvent and it and its chief executive, C. Gregory Earls, are facing suits by investors who say they were defrauded of millions of dollars.

Those who’ve been paying attention during Bush crime spree will be familiar w/Webster’s contributing role.

And just for kicks, here’s W’s statement (10/13/03) on post Enron Sarbanes-Oxley legislation (watered down to meaningless standards by industry bought & paid for repubs after Enron smoke cleared):

BACK IN JULY, President Bush signed the post-Enron reform bill put together by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) and sought to share the credit for what he called “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” In a ceremony at the White House, the president declared that “the era of low standards and false profits is over” and that “no boardroom in America is above or beyond the law.”

The events of the past two weeks raise serious questions about whether Mr. Pitt and the president really meant what they said. The single biggest test of the law’s implementation — the selection of a credible chairman for the new audit oversight board — is being inexplicably mishandled. Having asked a good candidate whether he would accept the job, and having encouraged him to leave his existing job early in order to make himself available, Mr. Pitt is backing away from him, apparently as a result of pressure from the audit lobby. Mr. Bush, who could stiffen Mr. Pitt’s resolve by threatening to designate a different SEC commissioner as chairman, has apparently forgotten his reformist promises of three months ago.

…

In doing so Cox failed to note the Clinton administration brought him on board: for budgetary advice – I’m guessing in the area of his preferred specialty: taxes – as in, getting rid of.

Clinton appointed him to the Commission-on-Entitlement-and-Tax-Reform. He played large role in that committee’s report warning of entitlement spending hazards. He also wrote legislation: Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, the only legislation passed over a Clinton veto.

That thing, I remember well… it affected our biz plans as software shop in heart of the burgeoning silicon valley. There was definitely predatory lawsuits as described by Cox & others at the time and it was hugely wasteful. But there also was hugely predatory biz practices… the big boys outright stealing code from smaller guys was a daily occurrence. Microsoft did it in a big way, bundling stolen goods into their OS and literally daring bare-bones funded shops to sue ‘em w/their well trained delay-delay-delay legal teams. But it wasn’t just MS, this happened all over the place, every day. In many ways, the development of OS(s) and whole bunch of other (especially) WEB standards we have today was directed by this stuff: eg. very capable shops w/an eye to what would make things work optimally stopped development because of huge risk the work would end up as a Windows utility w/no return for developer.

So anyway, Cox dealt w/only 1/2 that problem… the half bought & paid for by well healed donors.

FWIW, eRiposte has a summary & links of Bush appointees only through March ‘03 here. I’m sure it will remind many who were watching then of what was to come.

And it did come allright. I’ve often thought along way of BushCo years that despite my grave concerns of consequences to their massive malfeasance literally across the board, they have always exceeded my worst fears.