Gorge-eous George
2006-10-12
Source: Fredericksburg.com
email this
print this
del.icio.us
digg this
rss feedALOT OF PEOPLE like money, but only 100 of them are U.S. senators, who help steer the nation's policies. Self-aggrandizement should not factor into shaping those policies, and perhaps in Virginia Sen. George Allen's case it has not. But the necessity for the word "perhaps" stems from the merry indifference Mr. Allen has shown to juxtaposing private gain and public affairs.
In early 2005, as Mr. Allen prepared to take a seat on the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources, only the goading of press reports persuaded his wife, Susan, to resign as a paid director of energy giant Dominion Power, which often has issues before that panel. A wise senator would not have needed to be goosed by the media to point his spouse toward some other line of work.
This year, Virginians of the right-to-life persuasion dismayingly learned that Mr. Allen, one of their champions, held stock in the drug company that makes Plan B, a "morning after" pill that many pro-life people consider an abortifacient. Mr. Allen retains the stock in Barr Laboratories, for which he also retains affection. As governor, he had enticed Barr to Virginia, where it created hundreds of jobs around Lynchburg.
Now The Associated Press reports that the senator collected stock options or stocks from high-tech companies for directorial and advisory services he rendered between the end of his governorship in 1998 and the start of his Senate term in 2001. He had taken a shine to those companies, too, while serving as Virginia's chief executive, revealed the AP, squiring officers from two of them on overseas trade missions and helping another build a new headquarters with tax-exempt bonds.
Click here to see the full article.
