Plum Crazy

What never ceases to amaze me is how these things happen so slowly. One can just see the spinmeisters trying their damnedest to make it work, and only giving up at the last minute. And No wonder people are equally suspicious of "big business" and "big government"....who can tell the difference?

well, well. I wonder who bushie will appoint to replace him. should we start a pool? anybody wanna vote for Jack Welch? Al Dunlap?

Oh completely. Just last week, Bush was talking about waiting for all the facts, rather than saying, "Look, we made a mistake" and calling for a quick resignation. You'd think the pols would learn a lesson, because in the long run the stalling tactics make them look worse than just admitting up fron that a mistake was made.

If I were Bush I would just go for the gold and get Kenny Lay to head the whole thing. That way it will all just be out in the open and we can start the healing process.

I don't know about that, Rick. I'd suggest Enron CFO Andy Fastow, but the Bush DOJ has indicted him on 78 counts and is moving to flip him against Kenny Boy Lay.

It's a shame that in this whole sorted mess we lost a decent and honorable public servant as William Webster. His honest character is unquestioned. The best the liberals can dig up is his knowledge of the firing of the outside auditor of U.S. Technologies, which charged too damn much and took too damn long to complete its work. Webster even told Harvey Pitt that if his appointment appeared to be a problem based on allegations in a law suit he would step down. This whole Harvey Pitt affair is all just politics; he had some great results at the SEC. In Washington, if you can't play the game, you have to go. And Pitt did embarrass the Bush administration with his political tin ear on several occasions.

Cool site Plum.

Actually, RR, the best they could dig up is that Webster himself fired BDO Seidman, not that he simply knew about it. Documents presented by Seidman also indicate that Webster was participating in a conference call in which the irregularities were specifically pointed out.

And thanks.

Hey, Plum. You're welcome. I hope it takes off like Drudge, over a billion served.

My understanding is that the entire auditing board, with Webster's blessing, decided to replace BDO with another firm because of its outrageous fee, which was almost a million dollars. And I don’t think BDO pointed out irregularities in the numbers in that conference call to the entire audit committee, nor do I think they pointed to any type of fraud. I don't even think anything alarming was discussed. BDO actually even agreed with their numbers. Rather, my understanding is that they raised ways in which U.S. Technologies could tighten their auditing controls by recommending certain improvements, like hiring a permanent and experienced CFO, and U.S. Technologies did implement those recommendations. These types of accounting control recommendations are normally made by accounting firms for the express purpose to allow a corporation to tighten up their system and improve their overall financial success, by among other things, improving functions internally, allowing a company to better take action on reports, and to improve budgeting. It doesn’t indicate wrong doing in the least. And I'm just afraid that this whole ordeal has been used by critics of President Bush, like the New York Times editorial page and Enron consultant Paul Krugman, in an inflated and misrepresented way to tarnish the reputation of a decent and honorable public servant, Judge Webster, when there is no indication that he did anything remotely wrong or illegal. Politics is blood lust.

RR, you may not be up to date on the notes released by Seidman regarding that conference call. Indeed three specific concerns were discussed, these being: (1) the need for a more experienced CFO (the only concern raised that was acted upon as admitted by Webster himself), (2) problems with document retention and storage, and (3) problems recording significant transactions on a timely basis. That third one, especially, is of concern when it comes to quality of earnings.

Granted that none of this is accounting fraud. However it is, nonetheless, disturbing in someone who is supposed to be heading up an accounting oversight board. Especially one whose primary purpose is to restore investor confidence that companies and auditors are fulfilling their fiduciary duties.

Thanks again, but I don't have my sights set on becoming as widely read as Matt Drudge. Not even as widely read as Bill Quick or Glenn Reynolds.