corrente

Hey, what's that stink?
Pollutant from Poppy Bush's old swine lagoon seeps back into the stream.

Jan 10, 2005:
Bush Names Allan Hubbard as Top Economic Adviser

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Monday named Allan Hubbard, an Indiana businessman and major Bush fund-raiser, to serve as his top economic adviser, the White House announced.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Hubbard will serve as assistant to the president for economic policy and as director of the White House National Economic Council, replacing Stephen Friedman, who stepped down late last year.

Hubbard, a long-time Bush friend, is president of privately held E & A Industries, Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, which owns several chemical companies.

Records show Hubbard ranked as a top fund-raiser for Bush during his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.

He once served as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle.

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - J. Danforth Quayle, former Vice-President

Flashback: The Quayle Council
OMD Watch - Dec. 24, 1992

Undoing Quayle Council Damage
Cases of Quayle Council Interference
In the two years Vice President Dan Quayle chaired the Council on Competitiveness, the Council interfered in, stalled, or killed dozens of regulatory programs and issued sweeping policy reports with both legislative and regulatory proposals on issues such as biotechnology and product liability.

[...]

There were reports of conflict of interest on the Council as well. Press accounts revealed that Allan Hubbard, the executive director of the Quayle Council on Competitiveness, was half-owner of an Indiana chemical company, and consequently may have had a conflict of interest in carrying out his public role. According to a report released by OMB Watch and Public Citizen, Hubbard also owned stock in an electric utility company, another industry subject to new Clean Air Act requirements. In response to these conflict of interest charges the White House has held up a waiver from conflict of interest laws that Quayle granted Hubbard in June 1991.

Flashback: House of Representatives - April 29, 1992

HON. LES AUCOIN: The next item on the Quayle council's hit list is Clean Air Act, a bill Bush himself once hailed as a major achievement. The President is currently pondering whether to allow industrial polluters to contaminate our environment even more than the law allows--without public hearings or Environmental Protection Agency review.

Hidden behind the veil of executive privilege, the council is not subject to the public accountability laws that govern other agencies. No public record of its communications or decisions is required. As Dan Quayle is fond of boasting cynically, the council `leaves no fingerprints,' just the wreckage of laws weakened by new loopholes and exemptions for corporate fat cats and polluters.

The Quayle council operates primarily for Dan Quayle's big business golfing buddies who, having failed in public debate in Congress, use the council as a secret back door to undermine health, safety, and environmental laws.

It's no coincidence that as the council pushes for a regulation to prevent the public or the EPA from stopping Clean Air Act violations, its staff director was forced to step aside for being a part owner of a chemical company that would profit from the new rule. This star chamber is by definition a conflict of interest.

Well, enough is enough. Today I'm introducing legislation to rip open the curtains and let the light of public scrutiny into this Chamber. This bill, in conjunction with legislation already introduced in the Senate by John Glenn, will require the Quayle council to conform with the procedures and openness that governs all other government rulemaking agencies.

Specifically, my bill will require the Quayle council to provide public access to all its written communications, provide summaries of oral communications, and explain the reasons for its intervention in the normal rulemaking process.

No longer will the public be shut out. No longer will big business have another chance to change laws that no one else has. It's time to shed some sunlight on George Bush and Dan Quayle's secret dealings. Let's make sure the public has the last laugh.

[source: Congressional Record]

Crocodile Tears:

The Quayle Council keeps no public records of who it talks to for advice, but Vice-President Quayle says he consults most often with business leaders who can tell him better than economists "how the clock is ticking." Allan Hubbard, executive director of the Quayle Council, says, "When they feel like they are being treated unfairly, [industry groups] come to us." ~ September 18, 1991- Environmental Research Foundation, Annapolis, MD.

Allan Hubbard - additional business/background info:
Allan B Hubbard - Director; Wellpoint Inc. (Anthem, Inc.) Link; Wellpoint Inc. mission and values

*