"It's a Baker Botts World" The Nation....what a scary thought.

[madfloridian]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041011&s=bryce
It's a Baker Botts World
by Robert Bryce

The induction of George W. Bush into the Texas crony network can be traced to a precise date: June 6, 1962. On that date, the gregarious 15-year-old went to work in the mailroom of Houston's oldest and most prestigious law firm, Baker Botts.

Four decades later, the financial/political symbiosis between the Bushes and Baker Botts is stronger than ever. Indeed, no law firm in America has profited more from its association with the two Bush Administrations than Baker Botts. Much of that influence stems from the firm's patriarch, the silver-maned, silver-tongued former Secretary of State, James A. Baker III. And now that Baker has joined George W. Bush's campaign--he is leading the negotiations with the Kerry campaign on the presidential debates--it's assured that he and a battalion of Baker Botts barristers are ready to man the ramparts in the event of another Florida recount scenario.

SNIP.."In 2003 Baker Botts advised Houston-based Marathon Oil on its acquisition of Khanty Mansiysk Oil Corporation, which produces oil in western Siberia. The law firm has also carved itself a foothold in the oil-rich Caspian Sea region. It was lead adviser to a consortium of oil companies that wrapped up a $3.5 billion finance package in February for one of the world's biggest energy projects, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Critical support for the pipeline came from two US government-backed agencies, the Export Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The pipeline, which will carry 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, faced fierce opposition from environmental groups. But Baker Botts and the oil companies prevailed. Baker Botts lawyers wrote all the regulations governing the pipeline, overriding domestic laws, including the environmental policies of the nations of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey."

This is a long article, very detailed. Very scary to think this guy is handling the debates and is still the go to guy for the Bushes.

[Octafish]

1. Baker is the Turd Consiglieri of the BFEE

He was one of "The Texans" Nixon spoke of on the White House tapes -- the ones with the money:

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography

by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin

Chapter -XII

Chairman George in Watergate

EXCERPT...

On August 5, 1974, the White House released the transcript of the celebrated "smoking gun" taped conversation of June 23, 1972 in which Nixon discussed ways to frustrate the investigation of the Watergate break-ins. Chairman George was one of the leading Nixon Administration figures consulting with Al Haig in the course of the morning. When Bush heard the news, he was very upset, undoubtedly concerned about all the very negative publicity that he himself was destined to receive in the blowback of Nixon's now imminent downfall. Then after a while he calmed down somewhat. One account describes Bush as "somewhat relieved" by the news that the coup de grace tape was going to be made public, "an act probably fatal," as Haig had said. "Finally there was some one thing the national chairman could see clearly. The ambiguities in the evidence had been tearing the party apart, Bush thought." At this point Bush became the most outspoken and militant organizer of Nixon's resignation, a Cassius of the Imperial Presidency.

A little later White House Congressional liaison William Timmons wanted to make sure that everyone had been fully briefed about the transcripts going out, and he turned to Nixon's political counselor Dean Burch. "Dean, does Bush know about the transcript yet?", Timmons asked. Burch replied, "Yes." "Well, what did he do?", Timmons asked.

"He broke out in assholes and shit himself to death," was Burch's answer.

But why, it may be asked, the dermal diahhrea? Why should Bush be so distraught over the release to the press of the transcript of the notorious White House meeting of June 23, 1972, whose exhcanges between Nixon and Haldeman were to prove the coup de grace to the agony of the Nixon regime? As we have seen, there is plenty of evidence that the final fall of Nixon was just the denouement that Bush wanted. The answer is that Bush was upset about the fabulous "smoking gun" tape because his friend Mosbacher, his business partner Bill Liedtke, and himself were referred to in the most sensitive passages. Yes, a generation of Americans has grown up recalling something about a "smoking gun" tape, but not many now recall that when Nixon referred to "the Texans," he meant George Bush. ("Das Bekannte ueberhaupt ist darum, weil es bekannt ist, nicht erkannt," as even old Hegel knew.)

The open secret of the much-cited but little analyzed "smoking gun" tape is that it refers to Nixon's desire to mobilize the CIA to halt the FBI investigation of the Watergate burglars on the grounds that money can be traced from donors in Texas and elsewhere to the coffers of the CREEP and thence to the pockets of Bernard Barker and the other Cubans arrested. The money referred to, of course, is part of Bill Liedtke's $700,000 discussed above. A first crucial passage of the "smoking gun" tape goes as follows, with the first speaker being Haldeman:

CONTINUED ...

http://www.tarpley.net/bush12.htm

[dixiechiken]

2. AAAARRRGGH!!! You have to be a subscriber to access the article...

I'd LOVE to read this... any help or ideas on how I can access or read this in its entirety? I'd really, really appreciate it! :)

[Must_B_Free]

3. bugmenot.com

[madfloridian]

4. Give me a minute to PM you. Ok?

:hi:
On 2nd thought, send me a PM and I will see what I can do.