Why did HRC invoke GW Bush favorably?

Besides, according to him, he's her step-brother in law. Bubba's his bubba from another mother.



(Just in case DU wants to freak out over meaningless bs, I edited this post to include this photo. Quiver.)

Impugned, my ass. Corporations don't give big bucks without expecting something in return. No one does. Same for her as for every other politician.

I wonder how Rich is doing these days?

and Bush1 let him have some.

You may wonder how a little Arkansas company can influence any thing.

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1773

Maybe the same reason the Koch brothers donated to the DLC?

I believe big time supporters of the Clintons. The Stephens Investment Bank is the largest investment bank not on Wall Street. It is located in downtown Little Rock.

Didn't he lose one of his runs?

Same goes for the CIA. Bill and Hillary were on the nice list for all those institutions in the 1980s.

politics in Arkansas put him in with the "Elites" probably through Witt Stephens who was a BIG Democratic party member. His brother and sons were all Republican I believe. But that didn't make any difference really. Power is Power

You may recognize some of the companies listed.

Founding and Early History[edit]
In 1933, Witt Stephens founded W.R. Stephens Investments to trade Arkansas Highway Bonds, which at the time were selling for as low as pennies on the dollar.[3] By the time the bonds paid off at par in the early ‘40s, Stephens had gained a reputation for municipal bond expertise and providing sound financial counseling.[3] In 1946, upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, Jackson T. “Jack” Stephens joined his brother and with a handshake, the two brothers formed Stephens Inc. and a partnership that lasted over forty-five years.[3][4]

The two brothers quickly began a series of acquisitions that would become a catalyst for the firm’s growth and future. In 1945, Stephens purchased the Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Company in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and in 1953, acquired what is now Stephens Production, an independent oil and gas exploration company.[4] In 1954, they purchased a controlling interest in the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company.[4]

In 1948, Stephens sold a Sheridan Telephone Exchange to Allied Telephone Company, which later became Alltel Corporation, thus beginning a decades-long relationship that in part continues today.[3][4]

In 1956, Jack Stephens was named President and CEO of Stephens Inc. and Witt left the firm to become President and Chairman of Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company, while both retained their 50-50 share of Stephens Inc. Witt returned to Stephens in the early 1970s.[3][4]

Jack began to grow Stephens by providing private equity to many young growing companies, much in the way of the British Merchant Bank investing model, predating by decades the private equity endeavors of Wall Street firms.[4] Jack’s acumen as an investor was combined in remarkable fashion with his ability to form enduring personal relationships with his partners.[5] Several generations of companies and business leaders came to know Jack as not only a smart investment banker, but as a loyal and reliable friend as well.[5] Jack’s influence grew well beyond Arkansas to the boardrooms of corporate America and to the halls of Washington D.C.; his opinions were constantly sought by investors, CEOs, and politicians.[6]

Many of Stephens’ private investments were quite successful. In the late 1960s, anticipating the coming revolution in bank data processing, Jack Stephens deployed excess computing capacity at Union Life Insurance Company, which was owned by him and his family.[3] With $400,000 in start-up capital invested, he created Systematics, which would later become a leader in the bank data processing industry.[4] Systematics was eventually acquired by Alltel Corporation and became Alltel Information Services. AIS was later acquired by Fidelity National Information Systems.[3][4]

Wal-Mart[edit]
In 1970, Stephens Inc., along with White Weld, raised $4.95 million in an IPO for a small Arkansas-based discount retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., owned by Sam Walton and his family.[4] The capital, and subsequently raised capital, helped to fund Wal-Mart’s rise from $32 million in sales to the largest retailer in the world.[4]

Superdome[edit]
In 1971, Stephens Inc., together with the First National Bank of Commerce, underwrote $113 million in tax exempt bonds to help build the Louisiana Superdome.[4] At that time, this was among the largest single tax exempt bond issues in history and Wall Street turned it down.[3]

Worthen Bank[edit]
In 1983, the Stephens family invested in Worthen Banking Corporation, which was headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.[4] In 1985, Worthen’s capital was wiped out by the bankruptcy of Bevil, Bressler & Schulman.[3][4] A rights offering led by Jack Stephens was implemented allowing shareholders to provide the funds necessary to revitalize the bank and keep it solvent.[4] In 1994, Worthen was sold to Boatmen’s Bancshares, and two years later, Boatmen’s was sold to Nations Bank, which in turn became Bank of America.[4]

1986-2000[edit]
In 1986, Warren Stephens, Jack’s son, was named Chief Executive Officer of Stephens Inc.[3] In 1989, Stephens advised Tyson Foods in their acquisition of Holly Farms resulting in a $1.5 billion in a hostile takeover.[4] In 1992, Stephens invested in Viking Range Corporation, providing the growth capital needed to seriously expand the company into a leading national brand.[3] In 1993, Stephens purchased Donrey Media, renaming it Stephens Media Group. Today, Stephens Media Group’s properties include The Las Vegas Review Journal and 17 more daily and weekly papers.[3][4]

2001-Present[edit]
In 2006, Warren Stephens acquired 100% of Stephens Inc.[3][4] A little over a year later, the global economic crisis, triggered by the meltdown of the housing markets, severely impacted financial markets and posed a grave threat to all financial institutions. Having avoided the over leveraging that brought down other investment firms, Stephens remained sound and continued to grow during this period.[3][4]

Since its acquisition by Warren, Stephens Inc. has grown substantially. The Public Finance Department has experienced a 47% growth, the Private Client Group has grown 66%, the Research Department has experienced a 71% growth, and Investment Banking has grown 95%. Stephens Insurance, an affiliate of Stephens Inc., has grown more than six times since the 2006 acquisition.[4]

In 2001 Huntingdon Life Sciences moved its headquarters to the United States, incorporating as Life Sciences Research (LSR), and secured a $15 million loan from investment bank Stephens, Inc, its largest shareholder.

Stephens Private Equity Group, known as Stephens Capital Partners, continued to find excellent opportunities in the 2000s as well. Three of their investments include the following:

In 2001, Stephens invested in Hotchkis & Wiley, a Los Angeles-based, value oriented, investment management firm.[3] H&W currently has approximately $21 billion under management.[7]
In 2007, Stephens invested in Sexing Technologies, a worldwide leader in Sexed Semen and Embryo production in the livestock industry. ST is well known around the globe as one of the top sources for assistance in locating and exporting quality semen, embryos, and live cattle from the United States.[8]
In 2010, Stephens helped to create Halifax Media. Based in Daytona, FL., Halifax owns and operates 33 newspapers, primarily in the southeast.[9]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. In W's case, his mosque speech may have been the only morally sound act of his presidency. In the run up to this speech, RW psychopaths were chasing down Muslim school girls and hitting them with poles drapped with American flags. More anti-Muslim mobs were ready to roll. Bush unwarrantedly killed scores of people during his presidency(via Iraq war, f'ked up ecomomic policies/conditions, prologing health care crisis...take your pick), but this speech was probably his only life saving moment.

I challenge ANY DUer to dispute the FACTUAL correctness of W's mosque speech. Anyone! Who here believes that the US should be at war with Islam? Do you think Bernie disagreed with W's mosque speech? No, I didn't think so. I bet every 2016 Repuke candidate disagrees in their heart with W's statements.

I absolutely agree that the US should not be at war with Islam, but I guess that sentiment makes me a W-legacy propogandist like Hillary...huh? I also love German Sheppards(actually I think they are the best dogs EVER), so I guess that makes me anti-semetic because German Sheppards were Hitler's favorite bread too.

I get on Repukes all the time for being so ultra-partisan that they can't give Obama credit for his most obvious accomplishments. I thought all Democrats were better than this. Hillary showed that she was, and she getting flack for it?!

Pathetic!

appalled. When I read the quote I was like so?? Bush was right about that one thing. He was making a distinction between being at war with terrorists as opposed to being at war with all Muslims. I mean he totally screwed up and created a huge mess and should be tried for war crimes but in this one instance, he actually said something honest.

As I missed a lot of the debate messing around with this tablet. Gotta watch it again. Let that be a lesson to me.

What did she say?

Never mind, I found it. She should not have mentioned that war criminal.

eom

eom

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this or what it means, but nowhere is it written that I will understand everything.

eom

"like family" !

I consider anyone who would adopt themselves into that particular family,
to be completely disqualified from holding the office of
President of the United States.

is the way you handle a crime. We were struck on Dimson's watch, in the same place. He pretended it was a war; and we got the WOT, the Patriot Act and Homeland Security.

because otherwise the vote was just either cowardice in the face of the 2002 race, or pure venality to get a future private consultancy or executive-branch job somewhere down the line

Her husband had bombed Iraq, too.

She didn't even read the NIE.

Just imagine a Jeb! vs. Hillary debate!

but it isn't turning out quite the way they anticipated, though I wouldn't count Jeb out. They have ways of 'winning' elections when they put their minds to it.

Or they might be happy with Hillary, or feel she deserves it? Who knows, we don't mix in those circles so it's hard to know how they view things, other than they do not want any 'riff raff' in the WH.

The Iraq War wasn't such a big mistake and it was, after all, 15 years ago.

Exactly my point!


Money in politics isn't bad. As Bill Clinton has often said, lobbyists perform a valuable function.

Exactly my point!


Big business is great for America. It creates jobs.

Exactly my point!


Education should not be free.

Exactly my point!


We have to be careful about burdening job creators with regulation and minimum wage.

Exactly my point!


And so on.


Charter schools are just what the doctor ordered to fix our education system!

Exactly my point!


The way to deal with Citizens' United is to use it to your advantage when fundraising, but promise to do something about it after you take office so no one else can do what you're doing.

Exactly my point!
Repeal of Glass Steagall was not a mistake!

Exactly my point!

...because of their turbans and beards, and women in headscarves (hijab) were being shamed and harassed. He told Americans to cut that shit out.

Where were you when this was happening? I loathe Dubya, but just once he got something right.

As for her so called petulance, oh please. She stood up for herself in a direct manner.

Yeah, that's it.

This one thing he got right.

Of course various Unitarian ministers called for compassion and reason, but guess who had the bigger pulpit?

But then she's all kissy-face with Henry Kissinger, so what would one expect?

credit for a few measly words to try to keep the focus on the 'moooslims' and not go off on other people who ignorant morons might mistake for his real target. He needed to tap into that bigotry to get support for his criminal war, torture and every other crime associated with it.

Shameful period in our history. There is nothing good that can be said about that war criminal administration.

When you set a fire and don't consider the consequences that maybe it might get out of control, you don't get credit for throwing a glass of water on it.

You SHOULD be prosecuted. But we don't live in a country that prosecutes war criminals or Economic Wall St terrorists.

You don't really dis your friends and ally's.

Probably wouldn't want to accidentally tweet that one using the #BLM hashtag.

Just for the record, I was majorly unimpressed with Bernie during the debate. Oh, and a belated welcome to DU!

DU is, to me, the best prog site by far.

I definitely agree about DU, and glad you're on the board.

Cheers.

Is politics really this hard to understand? I would also take issue with your characterization. Clearly she expressed dismay over his whole administration.

compared to even such an incredibly flawed character as Bush.

Most people found that to be pretty clear

Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.

Not unexpected from someone who believes Vladimir Putin is a small or big D democrat.