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Originally Posted by stevo
You should run for office host.
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Yeah....nothing to see here, I guess....moveon, host !!!!
This is supposed to be an appointment to the SCOTUS bench. It used to mean something to be appointed to the SCOTUS. It used to mean something to be elected POTUS. Now....all of it smells. There is a stench....an appearance of impropriety (everyone in high office declares that we must avoid those....), in everything that this administration has a hand in.
The crux of the material that follows, is that, when Harriet Miers was head of the Texas State Lottery, ( a position that Bush appointed her to) after she did a background search of Bush in 1993, at his behest, she was at the helm when:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Ar...935858,00.html
A new, clean-hands direc tor, Lawrence Littwin, was appointed by the Texas Lottery Commission. He ordered an audit of GTech's accounts, ended GTech's contract and put it out for re-tender. He also launched an inquiry into GTech's political donations.
Then a funny thing happened. The Texas Lottery Commission fired Littwin.
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Littwin reacted by filing a lawsuit against GTECH. Littwin had come into his director position, presumably as an impartial auditor. He ended up feeling strongly enough in his opinion that Ben Barnes, who, as speaker of the Texas House of Rep., in 1968, had (Bush wants us to believe....) "made the call" to insure that Bush circumvented the waiting list to gain entry into the TANG, solely on the suggestion of "Houston businessman Sidney Adger, a longtime Bush family friend", held "undue influence over the Texas Lottery Commission".
Folks, this appointment is "payback" to Harriet. The 2004 campaign events demonstrate that Bush would not be president if the details of how he got into the TANG in 1968, was able to become a combat pilot with his low test score, and was able to refuse a flight physical and perform no further duty in the NG, and avoid being reassigned to active military duty, and yet receive an early "honorable" discharge from the TANG, were ever fully available, along with witnesses, to be examined by the public and the news media. Bush would not have run for Texas governor in 1994 if Harriet & co. were not successful in rehabilitating Bush's arrest records and military service records.
The "fixer" now gets to taint the SCOTUS by her very presence there. Lawrence Littwin received a cash settlement from his suit against Gtech, and the American people, lose again!
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...rnes092199.htm
Texas Speaker Reportedly Helped Bush Get Into Guard
By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 1999; Page A4
..........The suit involving Barnes was brought by former Texas lottery director Lawrence Littwin, who was fired by the state lottery commission, headed by Bush appointee Harriet Miers, in October 1997 after five months on the job. It contends that Gtech Corp., which runs the state lottery and until February 1997 employed Barnes as a lobbyist for more than $3 million a year, was responsible for Littwin's dismissal.
Littwin's lawyers have suggested in court filings that Gtech was allowed to keep the lottery contract, which Littwin wanted to open up to competitive bidding, in return for Barnes's silence about Bush's entry into the Guard.............
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Quote:
Copyright 1999 The Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
October 30, 1999, Saturday
......A lawsuit that led to the disclosure of details about how young George W. Bush got into the National Guard was settled Friday by a former Texas Lottery director and the firm he blamed for his 1997 firing.
Gtech, operator of the Texas Lottery, agreed to pay $300,000 to Lawrence Littwin. The company denied any wrongdoing and called the settlement a "business decision that was in the best interest of our company and the Texas Lottery."
"The company is extremely disappointed and frustrated that it ultimately became necessary to reach a settlement of this matter," Gtech spokesman Marc Palazzo said. "The cost and time associated with litigating this case would have been extensive and far more than the settlement."
Littwin and his attorneys were unavailable for comment Friday. In the settlement, Littwin accepted a confidentiality agreement severely limiting what he can say about the case.
Court records show Littwin wanted $2.6 million from Gtech. His lawsuit claimed the company had undue influence over the Texas Lottery Commission -- influence that led the commission to fire him -- because former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, a former high-dollar lobbyist for Gtech, had potentially damaging information about how Bush got into the National Guard. Gtech had cut its ties with Barnes -- paying $23 million to Barnes and associate Ricky Knox to terminate their contract -- before Littwin's five-month tenure at the Lottery Commission.
Last month, in a deposition sought by Littwin's lawyers, Barnes was asked whether, while serving as speaker of the Texas House in 1968, he helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard.
After the deposition, Barnes issued a statement saying he had been asked by Houston businessman Sidney Adger, a longtime Bush family friend, to recommend George W. Bush for the Guard slot that he eventually got. The statement said nobody in the Bush family had asked for favorable treatment for George W. Bush.
The governor and his father have said they were unaware of any efforts by Adger to get the younger Bush into the Guard. Littwin's lawsuit said Barnes "is alleged to have helped the current Governor George Bush avoid active duty during the Vietnam War."
The lawsuit also noted that two top former Bush aides, Reggie Bashur and Cliff Johnson, became Gtech lobbyists after leaving the governor's staff.
Under terms of the settlement, Littwin "admits that he has no personal knowledge of any of the criminal activity alleged in support of his claims against Gtech."
Littwin also agreed to give to Gtech or destroy all documents produced by the litigation, including transcripts of Barnes' deposition.
Gtech's ability to defend itself against the federal lawsuit took a direct hit recently when <b>a federal judge ruled that Texas Lottery Commission Chairwoman Harriet Miers did not have to give a deposition in the case.</b> Company lawyers had wanted to ask Miers about the reasons for Littwin's dismissal, which were never detailed by the three-member commission..........
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Quote:
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/atty...es/002383.html
.......White House counsel Harriet Miers has never served as a judge before, and while this career "hard-nosed lawyer" (as she is invariably described) from Texas certainly deserves some kudos for a trailblazing career as a female lawyer, she's not a legal scholar, either.
But she does know better than just about anyone else where the bodies are buried (relax, it's a just a metaphor...we hope) in President Bush's National Guard scandal. In fact, Bush's Texas gubenatorial campaign in 1998 (when he was starting to eye the White House) actually paid Miers $19,000 to run an internal pre-emptive probe of the potential scandal. Not long after, a since-settled lawsuit alleged that the Texas Lottery Commission -- while chaired by Bush appointee Miers -- played a role in a multi-million dollar cover-up of the scandal.
Whatever Miers knows about the president's troubled past, she may soon be keeping that information underneath the black robe of an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court..........
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