The LAT's Michael Hiltzik looks at Meg Whitman's record at Goldman Sachs at how it meshes
with her do-right image he's selling to voters.
"I've been trying to reconcile that principle with
her actions in
what's become known as her "spinning" scandal.
"Eight years ago,
it came out that Whitman was among an elite group of favored executives
who had accepted preferential stock deals from Goldman
Sachs while it
was seeking business from their companies.
In spinning,
executives would typically get shares in coveted initial
public stock
offerings, which they would "spin," or resell, into
a soaring market,
usually within days and sometimes within hours. Their
quick and almost
entirely risk-free profits were effectively gifts, and the investment
banks the givers.
"Whitman attempted to dodge responsibility for
her actions by claiming that there was "nothing illegal"
about them at
the time. (This is rather at odds with a credo appearing on page
130 of
her book: "Be accountable.")"
"In her book, Whitman accepts responsibility for the
affair only to the
extent that it "brought distractions and bad publicity
to EBay." That
misses the point — her actions, not the publicity that resulted, were
the issue. But her words remind us, as we consider
handing the reins of
the state to an individual whose judgment has been
forged by
unimaginable wealth and in a rarefied business milieu,
that her
definitions of integrity and accountability may not
quite match those of
the rest of us."
Ouch.
Meanwhile, Whitman is going on the offensive, taking
on Jerry Brown's connections to ... Goldman Sachs?
As Michael Rothfeld reports, "Brown, a Democrat and California's attorney general,
also has
connections to Goldman, which was charged with civil
fraud last week by
the Securities and Exchange Commission. The links are
his sister and a
complicated financing deal made by the city of Oakland,
where he served
as mayor for eight years.
"That deal, known as an "interest rate swap," was supposed
to guarantee
Oakland stability in its debt payments but is now costing
the
cash-strapped city $5 million a year. The agreement, which goes until
2021, has an estimated cancellation cost of $19 million. The city is
trying to renegotiate it, and union officials representing
government
employees are calling on Goldman to let Oakland and
other municipalities
out of such agreements.
"Whitman's spokesman, Tucker Bounds, called the arrangement
"a big-money
deal for Wall Street that is costing California taxpayers
millions of
dollars a year."
"No matter how you look at it, Jerry and his sister
were on both ends of
a bad deal for taxpayers, and Goldman Sachs pocketed
millions," Bounds
said."
Cathleen Decker looks at how the Goldman issue is playing in the governor's
race
"Whitman glossed over her relationship with Goldman
Sachs,
specifically her departure from its board in 2002 after little more than
a year.
"I actually stepped down because I didn't feel like
it
was a good fit," she said. "I'm more a Main Street
CEO than a Wall
Street denizen."
.
"I think people will look at the EBay experience and
they will say,
‘Gosh, you know, Meg was involved with Goldman Sachs
in some way but my
sense is that she's a Main Street executive [who] understands what it's
like to run a small business,' " she said. "You will
not find a
stauncher advocate for small business than me, and
that's what's going
to lead California out of this recession."
Meanwhile, the 30-minute Meg informercial hit the airwaves today. John Myers reports, "So what new do we learn about
the Republican gubernatorial front
runner? For those following the campaign, not much.
And for those who
aren't, the question may be whether the choreographed
production —
including "breaks" for her TV commercials and graphics
reminding you how
to get a copy of her plan — is seen as enlightening… or just standard
infomercial hawking of a product in the wee hours."
Kevin Yamamura looks ahead to November and the ultimate referendum on the Schwarzenegger governorship.
"In his final year, wealthy donors have turned the
tables. They
hope to use the ballot to erase two of his biggest
legacy pieces, a
landmark climate-change law and an independent redistricting process.
"Schwarzenegger
is eyeing a major fall showdown against oil companies
and other
businesses over an initiative to suspend Assembly Bill
32, which
requires California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
to 1990 levels by
2020. Many firms did not support that change four years
ago because
they feared higher costs and now sense a chance to
derail it as
California struggles with a 12.6 percent unemployment rate."
Chase Davis looks at the spending on lobbying during the first quarter of 2010.
"California companies spent more than $66 million lobbying state
officials and Congress during the first quarter of
this year, according
to quarterly
data released by the feds last week.
"By far the largest spender, according to the data,
was Pacific Gas
& Electric Co., which dropped $25.8 million – nearly all of which
was spent to support Proposition
16, which would require two-thirds of local residents to approve
the creation of new electricity districts. The company
has poured
nearly $35 million into the campaign.
"Other big lobbying spenders include Chevron ($3 million), Oracle
($1.2 million) and DirecTV ($620,000)."
And finally, "An Australian restaurant that refused
a blind man entry because a
waiter thought his seeing-eye dog was 'gay' has been ordered to
apologise and pay compensation.The restaurant's owners
said a misunderstanding had
arisen between Ian Jolly's female companion and a waiter
who understood the
woman 'to be saying she wanted to bring a gay dog into the restaurant'."
The restaurant, which displays a "guide dogs welcome"
sign, refused
to comment to the newspaper and was unavailable to
respond on Sunday."
In more bad news for the pooch, Gavin Newsom is now
making the dog a cornerstone of his lieutenant governor's
campaign -- whether you like it or not.
