dy156

By saying that he has donated his stock payouts to charity, and that his other income was completely insulated from the success or failure of Halliburton.

From what I read, before he joined on as the VP candidate in 2000, Cheney bought an insurance policy substituted for his income from Halliburton based on stock options, so that he could still get the income that he earned, but it would be guaranteed and independent from whether the company's stock went up or down. Therefore, any actions taken by the government in helping Halliburton would not change Cheney's income. If Halliburton had not been given in business from the US in Iraq, and Halliburton's stock price fell, Cheney's income would have remained the same. If the Fed. government had given Halliburton any other business and the stock price had increased, Cheney would not have benefitted. He has also donated to charity any after-tax profits that he made from exercising stock options. I remember being somewhat surprised to find that there werwe insurance companies that frequently organized these type of deals when executives of one company, whose promised income is based in part on stock performance leave the company for another or for government service.

In addition, Halliburton has been criticized for being the only company that bid on many of the contracts for Iraqi reconstruction. However, it was actually Kellog, Brown and Root, a company Halliburton bought, that is the only company that does that sort of thing. Kellogg Brown and Root was given much of the contracts involving supplying American trops in Vietnam, too. In fact, there are even conspiracy theories I've heard about LBJ's involvement with Brown and Root (its name back then, I think) and JFK's death. It makes me think that these conspiracy theories, whether they involve allegedly corrupt Republicans or allegedly corrupt Democrats, are just likely to occur given the nature of Brown and Root's business of civilian support for military actions.

From everything I have read in print, Cheney acted completely above board, and should have done a better job of conveying this last night.

edit: I've also read that Cheney profitted from the insulation of his income from Halliburton's stock price. Halliburton stock fell alot after Cheney took office, because one of Cheney's acts as CEO was to acquire another company whose name elludes me right now. Unknown at the time, that company came with lots and lots of asbestos related litigation it had to defend/settle, and that was why the stock price went down. Cheney therefore, by doing the right thing, profited from a bad business decision caused by trial lawyers. Ironic, isn't it?