Corporate Scandal Just Politics As Usual

We have heard a lot lately about cleaning up Corporate America. We hear of corrupt CEO’s, insider trading and cooked books. Politicians to the rescue. The liberals are excited. Time to blame President Bush. Time to tie problem companies to their political opponents. That is exactly what they have tried to do. It is not an easy task to pull off, however. Enron and Clinton have closer ties than first thought. Fact is, there may well be more ties to the democrats in these scandals than republicans. It is never the same when they get caught. Why? Because, just because.

I have a couple questions regarding these corporate scandals. Where were the democrats when these various corporations were and still are hurting the little guy? What about layoffs for the purpose of bolstering company stock prices? Forcing older employees into early retirement only to rehire inexperienced replacements a couple months later. Isn’t this the party that pockets all the union support? What have they given in return? Lip service.

Where are they when big corporations trounce the little guy? Are they not helping to rewrite laws to assist them? How about Nissan Motor’s attempt to swipe the nissan.com domain name from Uzi Nissan and his computer company? A name he registered back in 1994. Where is the outrage? Does might make right? Because they are smaller should they be forced to give up what they own? Should the corporate giant subject them to a $10 million lawsuit? Where are Daschle and the media on this? What about other companies that have robbed their employees?

American Tissue Corp. executives suspected of embezzlement. Another mismanaged company with clever accounting. Before they closed shop they took insurance money from employees and didn’t pay the premiums. In essence they booked the insurance bets and when they lost they did not pay the employees. Where are the democrats? Where is the concern and help for the poor employees? I guess they could not tie it to the Republicans so it wasn’t important.

The Democrats do not address unethical practices of any kind if they can’t make political hay out of it. It took talk show host Bill O’Reilly to call into question Pepsi’s hiring of rap scoundrel, Ludacris. Pepsi dropped the ads one day later. You didn’t see the democrat leadership speak out because they don’t have the guts. They would need to take a poll first to be sure it would help them politically. Why would they speak out against the entertainment industry? Wouldn’t they rather turn their heads and get their palms greased by their Hollywood supporters? They get publicity money can’t buy. Cameras always on and plenty of left wing Hollywood simpletons to trash the President and the Republicans.

Then there is the liberal festival known as the Earth Summit. An extravagant party on a $55 million U.N. budget where the liberal rich cry about the poor. Lobster, caviar and Champaign at the Johannesburg conference aimed at ending famine. Meanwhile children go hungry in nearby villages. Where is the outrage? Where are the calls for reforming this farce of a summit?

When all is said and done, the root of the corporate problems will not be addressed. It will be on to the next “make hay” topic of the day. Maybe the only way to clean up corporations is when the consumers clean them up, the O’Reilly way. Make that a coke, please.