Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Name this US Vice-President

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Name this US Vice-President

    Can you name this VP? No Googling, please.

    ONE of the largest operating divisions of Halliburton, the construction and energy giant, has already secured work to help rebuild postwar Iraq. It has a long history, in fact, of winning extraordinarily lucrative deals from the government because of its ties -- including huge contributions of cash and other favors -- to the hawkish politician . . .
    "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

  • #2
    Is that Rev. Al?
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
      Is that Rev. Al?
      Nope.
      "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

      Comment


      • #4
        Mickey Mouse?

        Comment


        • #5
          It can't be Dick Cheney. That would be too easy.

          Hey...no Googling...can I use Live Search or Yahoo?
          Last edited by gunnut; 02 May 08,, 22:01.
          "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

          Comment


          • #6
            Lbj?
            To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

            Comment


            • #7
              Is that a snippet by, for, about?

              -dale

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by troung View Post
                Lbj?
                Correct.
                "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by dalem View Post
                  Is that a snippet by, for, about?

                  -dale
                  I came across this today and thought it was interesting.

                  The sourcing comes from this volume on LBJ: Amazon.com: The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1): Robert A. Caro: Books

                  The Nation: Friends in Deed; In the Company of Vice Presidents, A Big Texas Contractor Prospered - New York Times

                  The Nation: Friends in Deed; In the Company of Vice Presidents, A Big Texas Contractor Prospered

                  By RICHARD A. OPPEL JR.
                  Published: March 30, 2003
                  ONE of the largest operating divisions of Halliburton, the construction and energy giant, has already secured work to help rebuild postwar Iraq. It has a long history, in fact, of winning extraordinarily lucrative deals from the government because of its ties -- including huge contributions of cash and other favors -- to the hawkish politician who eventually became president.

                  That politician was Lyndon Baines Johnson. And the Halliburton division? Brown & Root, which started as a small-time Texas road builder in 1919 but became one of the world's largest construction concerns before its acquisition by Halliburton in 1962.

                  Now known as Kellogg Brown & Root, the division has a contract to fight oil field fires and help restore Iraq's oil sites. While government officials say the company isn't a finalist for the initial Iraqi reconstruction contract, the biggest opportunity for Halliburton and its rivals may not come until decisions are made about how to improve Iraq's oil-producing ability -- a task experts say may cost as much as $40 billion.

                  Halliburton's prospective postwar role has drawn fire from war critics, especially in Europe, where it has been widely noted that Vice President Dick Cheney owes most of his multimillion-dollar fortune to his tenure as Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 to 2000. But few companies have as much experience as Halliburton in the sort of work that will be required in Iraq, and critics have a hard time demonstrating that the company is not a qualified choice.

                  The means by which Brown & Root achieved its enormous size and wealth is another matter altogether.

                  Many important politicians have corporate or other wealthy benefactors who eased their rise to power. Few, though, were as lucky to have the sort of patrons that L.B.J. had in Herman and George Brown, brothers from Belton, Tex.

                  The Browns were lucky to have L.B.J., too. Over the years, their work for the government was varied and extraordinary: the company gained prominence in the 1960's as a space contractor and as part of a consortium in Vietnam that built $1.6 billion worth of airfields, bridges and other military projects. It also won a controversial contract for Project Mohole, an ultimately fruitless effort to bore through the earth's crust and pierce its mantle.

                  It was at the very outset of Johnson's political career, in 1937, that his relationship with the Browns was forged -- and that the brothers pocketed their first million. Johnson was running to fill the congressional seat of the late James Buchanan, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The Browns were in a big fix. As recounted by the Johnson biographer Robert A. Caro, they had borrowed heavily to begin work on the Marshall Ford Dam near Austin. But the federal project was imperiled, in part, because the government didn't own the land on which it was being built. Buchanan had promised to sort things out, but with his death, it wasn't clear the Browns would receive a second $5 million appropriation for the project or have the money to repay their construction debts.

                  After his victory, Johnson, who had tied his electoral fortunes to Franklin D. Roosevelt, used his influence with the president to obtain the $5 million -- giving the Browns a $1 million profit and saving them from ruin. Later, Johnson pushed through a plan to raise the height of the dam, bringing its total cost to $27 million.

                  ''Give the kid the dam,'' Roosevelt said, according to Thomas G. Corcoran, the presidential aide who recounted the episode in Mr. Caro's book ''The Path to Power.''

                  ''Lyndon Johnson's whole world was built on that dam,'' Mr. Corcoran said.

                  With Johnson looking out for Brown & Root -- and the company funneling huge sums to his campaigns, money that brought an Internal Revenue Service investigation -- the company soon landed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to build military bases and warships. These contracts came even though ''we didn't know the stern from the aft -- I mean the bow -- of the boat,'' George Brown told Mr. Caro.

                  Ronnie Dugger, the former editor of The Texas Observer, who is writing the second volume of his own Johnson biography, said in an interview, ''Seeing Johnson rise from central Texas to what he became is inconceivable without Brown & Root as the vehicle in which he was traveling.''

                  Mr. Dugger recalled a 1967 White House interview in which he asked Johnson about Brown & Root's contributions, particularly those for the 1941 and 1948 Senate races -- without which Johnson's political career might have been over.

                  ''He looked at me, and said just in passing, with a wave of the hand, 'In those days, it was cash.' ''
                  "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Correct.
                    Are my butter cookies on the way?

                    Figured it had to be a Dem who was VP that someone would have heard of, and read long ago that LBJ had dealt with them favorably when he was around.
                    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X