In response to Baird's letter, Hagel filed an amendment characterizing the McCarthy Group as an "excepted investment fund,"a designation for widely held, publicly available mutual funds.
According to Bolton, Baird said that the McCarthy Group did not appear to qualify as an "excepted investment fund."12 Then Baird resigned.
When Baird met with Bolton, he told him that Hagel appeared to have mischaracterized his investment. Then Hagel's staff met with Baird. This took place on Friday, January 25, 2003. Hagel's staff met with Baird again on Monday, January 27. Bolton came in for one final interview Monday afternoon, just prior to submitting his story to The Hill for Tuesday's deadline.
Baird had just resigned, it was explained, and Baird's replacement, Robert Walker, met with Bolton instead, urging a new, looser interpretation of Hagel's disclosures-an interpretation that did not mesh with other expert opinions, or even with our own common sense.
Where was Victor Baird? Could he be interviewed at home? Apparently not. Bolton was told that
Baird still worked for the Senate Ethics Committee, just not in a position that could talk to the press. Could there have been another reason for Baird's resignation?
Maybe. Baird had announced in December 2002 that he planned to resign at the end of February 2003. But he changed his mind and left the position he'd held for 16 years, a month early and in the middle of the day.
In a nutshell:
" Hagel omitted mentioning that he received a salary from American Information Systems in any disclosure document.
" He omitted mentioning that he held the position of chairman in his 1995 and 1996 documents, but says he included it in a temporary interim 1995 statement. The instructions say to go back two years. Hagel also held the CEO position in 1994, but omitted that on all forms.
" He omitted mentioning that he held stock in AIS Investors Inc. and also did not list any transfers or sale of this stock.
" He apparently transferred his investment into ES&S' parent company, the McCarthy Group, and he disclosed investments of up to $5 million in that. He omitted the itemization of McCarthy Group's underlying assets. Under "type of investment," he originally wrote "none."
" When asked by Baird to clarify what the McCarthy Group was, he decided to call it an "excepted investment fund."
" Baird failed to go along with Hagel's odd description of the McCarthy Group as an "excepted" fund
" Baird was replaced by a new Ethics Committee director who did support Hagel's interpretations.
" After this chapter was posted on the Internet, Hagel's staff sent a bulletin to the press saying that he did disclose his position with AIS. Several reporters simply accepted this misstatement at face value. In fact, Hagel's staff is referring to a temporary interim statement covering five months in 1995, which still omitted his stock holdings and salary from AIS and the CEO position. Somehow even the temporary disclosure of his ties to AIS disappeared from his final 1995 disclosure form. All of Hagel's 1995 and 1996 disclosure documents, including the temporary interim statement, contain material omissions and his final forms (the ones used by the press and the Senate Ethics Committee) omit everything about AIS.
Hagel has never been called upon to answer for these omissions.
Bolton told me that something had happened during his investigation of the Hagel story that had never occurred in all his time covering Washington politics: Someone had tried to muscle him out of running a story. Jan Baran, perhaps the most powerful Republican lawyer in Washington, and Hagel's Chief of Staff, Lou Ann Linehan walked into The Hill and tried to pressure Bolton into killing his story. He refused. "Then soften it," they insisted. He refused.
Bolton is an example of what is still healthy about the consolidated and often conflicted U.S. press. Lincoln's Channel 8 TV News is another example-it was the only news outlet that reported on Matulka's allegations that Hagel had undisclosed ties with the voting machine company scheduled to count their votes. The 3,000 editors who ignored faxed photocopies of Hagel's voting machine involvement, and especially the Nebraska press who had every reason to cover the story but chose not to inform anyone about the issue, are an example of what is wrong with the media nowadays.
Here's what Dick Cheney had to say when he learned that Hagel was also being considered for the vice presidential slot in 2000: "Senator Chuck Hagel represents the quality, character and experience that America is searching for in national leadership."
According to an AP wire report, Senator Chuck Hagel thinks he's capable of being an
effective president and says he isn't afraid of the scrutiny that comes with a White House bid.
"Do I want to be president?" Hagel commented, "That's a question that you have to spend some time with. ... I'm probably in a position as well as anybody-with my background, where I've been, things that I've gotten accomplished."13
Whether or not Hagel is in a position to run for president, the company he managed is certainly in a position to count most of the votes. According to the ES&S Web site, its machines count 56 percent of the votes in the United States.
* * * * *
According to Bolton, Baird said that the McCarthy Group did not appear to qualify as an "excepted investment fund."12 Then Baird resigned.
When Baird met with Bolton, he told him that Hagel appeared to have mischaracterized his investment. Then Hagel's staff met with Baird. This took place on Friday, January 25, 2003. Hagel's staff met with Baird again on Monday, January 27. Bolton came in for one final interview Monday afternoon, just prior to submitting his story to The Hill for Tuesday's deadline.
Baird had just resigned, it was explained, and Baird's replacement, Robert Walker, met with Bolton instead, urging a new, looser interpretation of Hagel's disclosures-an interpretation that did not mesh with other expert opinions, or even with our own common sense.
Baird still worked for the Senate Ethics Committee, just not in a position that could talk to the press. Could there have been another reason for Baird's resignation?
Maybe. Baird had announced in December 2002 that he planned to resign at the end of February 2003. But he changed his mind and left the position he'd held for 16 years, a month early and in the middle of the day.
In a nutshell:
" Hagel omitted mentioning that he received a salary from American Information Systems in any disclosure document.
" He omitted mentioning that he held the position of chairman in his 1995 and 1996 documents, but says he included it in a temporary interim 1995 statement. The instructions say to go back two years. Hagel also held the CEO position in 1994, but omitted that on all forms.
" He omitted mentioning that he held stock in AIS Investors Inc. and also did not list any transfers or sale of this stock.
" He apparently transferred his investment into ES&S' parent company, the McCarthy Group, and he disclosed investments of up to $5 million in that. He omitted the itemization of McCarthy Group's underlying assets. Under "type of investment," he originally wrote "none."
" When asked by Baird to clarify what the McCarthy Group was, he decided to call it an "excepted investment fund."
" Baird failed to go along with Hagel's odd description of the McCarthy Group as an "excepted" fund
" Baird was replaced by a new Ethics Committee director who did support Hagel's interpretations.
" After this chapter was posted on the Internet, Hagel's staff sent a bulletin to the press saying that he did disclose his position with AIS. Several reporters simply accepted this misstatement at face value. In fact, Hagel's staff is referring to a temporary interim statement covering five months in 1995, which still omitted his stock holdings and salary from AIS and the CEO position. Somehow even the temporary disclosure of his ties to AIS disappeared from his final 1995 disclosure form. All of Hagel's 1995 and 1996 disclosure documents, including the temporary interim statement, contain material omissions and his final forms (the ones used by the press and the Senate Ethics Committee) omit everything about AIS.
Hagel has never been called upon to answer for these omissions.
Bolton told me that something had happened during his investigation of the Hagel story that had never occurred in all his time covering Washington politics: Someone had tried to muscle him out of running a story. Jan Baran, perhaps the most powerful Republican lawyer in Washington, and Hagel's Chief of Staff, Lou Ann Linehan walked into The Hill and tried to pressure Bolton into killing his story. He refused. "Then soften it," they insisted. He refused.
Bolton is an example of what is still healthy about the consolidated and often conflicted U.S. press. Lincoln's Channel 8 TV News is another example-it was the only news outlet that reported on Matulka's allegations that Hagel had undisclosed ties with the voting machine company scheduled to count their votes. The 3,000 editors who ignored faxed photocopies of Hagel's voting machine involvement, and especially the Nebraska press who had every reason to cover the story but chose not to inform anyone about the issue, are an example of what is wrong with the media nowadays.
Here's what Dick Cheney had to say when he learned that Hagel was also being considered for the vice presidential slot in 2000: "Senator Chuck Hagel represents the quality, character and experience that America is searching for in national leadership."
According to an AP wire report, Senator Chuck Hagel thinks he's capable of being an
effective president and says he isn't afraid of the scrutiny that comes with a White House bid.
"Do I want to be president?" Hagel commented, "That's a question that you have to spend some time with. ... I'm probably in a position as well as anybody-with my background, where I've been, things that I've gotten accomplished."13
Whether or not Hagel is in a position to run for president, the company he managed is certainly in a position to count most of the votes. According to the ES&S Web site, its machines count 56 percent of the votes in the United States.
* * * * *
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