Bush never "Owned" the Texas Rangers! I'm so sick of hearing this

[billkurtmeyer]

In actuality he was a minor partner in terms of money invested and was nothing but a front man because of his name. Can anyone correct me if I am wrong.

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Right

He didn't do any managing at all.

[Straight Shooter]

2. You are right. I lived in Arlington, Texas, at the time.

His name never came up in connection with the Rangers. What a crock.

And, the Arlington Stadium was built by wheeling and dealing to get that land condemned. Everything bush touches gets covered with corruption.

[Lone Pawn]

3. No, see, he played them in Counterstrike

and pWn3d them with his 1337 TANG 5k1LLz.

[johnaries]

4. Uh, well, I saw him on camera... which would support

your statement that he was a "front man", and I knew that he sold some stock in the company he helped run into the ground in order to buy stock in the Rangers in a deal that was "investigated" by the SEC under Poppy in a deal that was obviously swept under the rug by Poppy, but when questions about the possibly illegal and nepotist results of the investigation started to arise all of a sudden we were about to go to war with Iraq...

Uh, wait! Were you wanting actual facts? Sorry! Can't help you there.

Edit: spelling. Dam you, rum and coke for tasting so good!

[AlCzervik]

5. Don't forget the Boondogle that was Rnagers Stadium and how they got

that land by eminent domaine.

[SophieZ]

6. Well, he was AN owner.

Tom Hicks is a board member and major stockholder of Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel executives give a greater portion of their political contributions to Republican candidates than any other large media entity.

Tom Hicks was part of the group of investors who bought the Texas Rangers from Bush. In that windfall deal, Bush put up less than 2% percent of the Rangers syndicate's original capital, was entitled to about $2.3 million from that sale, but somehow fortunately received $14.9 million of the proceeds. {source: Paul Krugman, New York Times}

A 2002 NYT article says that Bush got a stock loan to himself of Harken stock, from which he derived a profit, which he used to repay the loan of $500,000 he used to become a minority partner in the Ranger deal.


Bush Calls for End to Loans of a Type
He Once Received
By JEFF GERTH and RICHARD W. STEVENSON
NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/business/11HARK.html?pagewanted=1
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2002

Harken Energy allowed Mr. Bush to acquire 105,000 shares in the company — 80,000 in late 1986 and 25,000 in 1988 — through a stock option program that was available to top corporate officials. Harken did not require repayment of the principal for eight years and charged 5 percent annual interest. The prime rate in December 1986, when Mr. Bush received the initial loan, was 7.5 percent.

He ultimately returned the stock he acquired this way, canceling the loans. Such loans were not uncommon among companies seeking to promote long-term shareholding among executives and directors.

...That sale, in June 1990, brought him $848,000, which he used to pay off a $500,000 loan he had taken out to help him buy into the Texas Rangers baseball team, a deal that helped secure his own personal fortune and propel him into Texas politics.

...The June 1990 Harken stock sale led to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission — during his father's administration — of whether Mr. Bush had knowingly sold the stock in advance of worse-than-expected financial results that temporarily drove down Harken's share price. The S.E.C. took no action against Mr. Bush. But the issue has dogged him politically for almost a decade and has again come up in recent weeks as accounting and insider trading accusations have dominated the headlines.

[SoCalDem]

7. Daddy finagled a 5% share if I recall,

and he managed to parlay it into a LOT of moolah when he bailed later..

Kind of like a guy who delivers nails to a jobsite, and then tells all his friends that he built the house:)