Sometimes seriously sometimes for

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Sometimes seriously, sometimes for little more than a laugh, administration officials argue that the permissive climate of the Clinton years was to blame for CEO and corporate boardroom shenanigans. The hapless Larry Lindsey tried out a version of this argument on Moneyline last week and Lou Dobbs actually burst into momentarily uncontrolled chuckles. “Mr. Lindsey, I understand it’s a political year,” Dobbs piped up after regaining his composure, “But you make it sound almost as if the administration and the respective law enforcement agencies and regulators will deal with only those criminals who committed those acts during the watch of President Clinton.”

The argument is so transparently ridiculous that it’s hard to know precisely how to test it. But here’s a possibility. Fortune has just released its “Greedy Bunch,” its list of the 25 greediest CEOs. That’s an admittedly subjective category. And the methodology Fortune chose is a touch complicated. But the essence of it is a measure of who cashed out the most while their stockholders were losing the most.

I did a quick bit of research through the campaign filing data. And out of that 25 I came up with 10 who were Bush campaign contributors. Four out of the top five actually. Two of the 25 gave money to Al Gore. But those two also gave money to Bush. So it would seem that even if these flighty CEOs were beguiled by Clinton’s seductive amorality the affliction didn’t stop them from supporting George W. Bush.

(Note: With a quick run through the data, there might be some errors. It’s not always clear whether this John Smith who gave money is the same John Smith who’s on the list, and so forth. But the overall pattern seems clear.)

Two of the Bush donors on the cash-out-derby list are also participating in Tuesday’s Economic Forum in Waco, Texas. In fact, number 11 on the list, Charles Schwab, is the keynote speaker at the panel on Small Investors & Retirement Security.

And what to make of the Forum itself? Much of the shine has come off the endeavor as it’s become clear that the ‘Forum’ is basically a summit of the president’s chief campaign contributors and CEOs who have been pre-approved because they already agree with his policies. But in an apparent effort to demonstrate some action, the president is going to announce he’s rejecting $5.1 billion in spending already approved by Congress. This $5 billion in spending could, we are told, exacerbate the long-term deficit outlook that the President’s own OMB says is overwhelmingly caused by the economic downturn and the president’s tax cut.

But how smart is this $5 billion ruse, even in the most cynical political terms? As the Washington Post notes, this money is earmarked for, among other things, “aid to Israel and Afghanistan, funds for health monitoring at Manhattan’s Ground Zero, and $44 million for police overtime reimbursement and other uses in the District of Columbia.”

Those seem like rather worthwhile expenditures directly tied to the war on terrorism. The rejection of that money puts the administration’s rhetoric at war with itself. Complaining about the deficit is supposed to be off-limits because spending is necessary for the war on terror. Okay … Now the president is taking a tough line by cutting spending on the war on terror because it threatens to bump up the deficit. Which is it? Is it really too much to expect logically consistent cynical manipulation?

It really is the gang that can’t shoot straight.

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