From: thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Citecheck Hell)
Subject: Re: James Baker
Reply-To: thf2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 23:24:41 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.212812.4100@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>In article <1992Sep14.181807.29941@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>, golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy) writes:
>> In article <1992Sep14.114727.7279@hemlock.cray.com> rja@redwood26.cray.com (Russ Anderson) writes:
>>>If Bush really needs James Baker to save his campaign (ie create
>>>a domestic program for Bush to run on), why not dump the middle
>>>man (Bush) and have Baker run for prosident.
>> 
>> The James Baker who failed to reveal his stock in a major American
>> bank while he was negotiating a bailout of South American debt to
>> First World Banks, 
>
>	Hasn't JB III had his money in a blind trust since joining the Reagan
>team?

No.  C. Boyden Gray made him do it, in return for which Baker tried to
have him fired.  And it wasn't just one bank -- it was several.  (He
made a huge profit on the deal, too -- the stocks of the banks shot up
after the hard-line settlement, but better Baker's pocket than hundreds
of millions of South Americans, right?)

>> the James Baker who was Secretary of the Treasury
>> while nothing was done about the S&L crisis in Reagan's second term,
>
>	Not his job.

Oh?  Which cabinet branch deals with the FSLIC then?

>> the James Baker who presided over the Willie Horton campaign, the
>
>	What Willie Horton campaign?  The media one or Al Gore's?

We've done this topic, so let's not rehash it.  

>> James Baker who was Secretary of State while the US encouraged,
>> financed, and armed Saddam Hussein, 
>
>	Encouraged?  How?

Cf. comments to Hussein before the invasion, saying that the border
dispute was not America's concern.

>	Armed?  What weapons?

Widely covered in the press lately.  Baker was also a leading opponent
of any sorts of sanctions on Iraq when there was mounting evidence before
Kuwait that Iraq was building ABC weapons.  Also helped to push through
the price supports for grain that enabled Iraq to divert millions of
dollars to purchasing arms from other countries.

>> and encouraged Milosovic by
>> saying the US preferred maintaining Yugoslavian territorial integrity,
>
>	Define Yugoslavia.  Present Serbia, Montengero & Vendjova (sp?) or the
>old pre-fall communist state.

Read an issue of the Economist, sometime.  While the rest of the world
was celebrating Croatia's independence, Baker was concerned about
"instability," an instability that never would have happened if the US
had come down on the side of the EEC.

>> and tried preventing Gorbachev's Soviet Union from collapsing...
>> this James Baker?
>
>	Preventing the SU from collapsing?  Explain.

Well, gee, who supported Gorbachev over Yeltsin (and, in fact, made sure
that Yeltsin was continually snubbed by the White House)?  Defended Gorby's
strong-arming the Baltic republics in the name of "stability"?  Was
willing to come to terms with the coup-meisters even as it was evident
that the mass of Russians didn't support the coup?

(Gerald omitted my favorite James Baker story -- the one where he
wore a dead fish around his neck for a week in law school so he could join
a fraternity.  He was a married man and father of one at the time.  We also
shouldn't forget Baker's remark about determining Middle East policy a
certain way because Bush only got 30% of the Jewish vote...)
-- 
           .. . . .  .  .   .    .     .     .    .   .  .  . . . ..
          ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | standard disclaimers
         the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637
          home of 59 u chi l rev -- coming soon to a theatre near you
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:45615 ca.politics:7820 ba.politics:5345 soc.motss:39119 ba.motss:1635