Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - A Public Service of The Conservative Caucus

Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 15, 2006

BEIJING’S MAN IN BUSH CABINET IS ALSO BILL’S BOY – PAULSON IS GWB’S TROJAN HORSE

“Eyebrows at the Treasury were raised last Tuesday when Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. named a major Democratic fundraiser to an important advisory role. The next day, eyebrows were still elevated when Undersecretary Robert K. Steel participated in an event spearheaded by Bill Clinton’s two Treasury secretaries.”

IS HILLARY ALREADY THE INCUMBENT?

“A longtime Republican officeholder now in the Bush administration noted these developments and e-mailed a fellow Republican outside the government: ‘This leads some to wonder whether this Treasury has become the preplaced Hillary Clinton team.’ If she is elected president, it is presumed that Clinton will want her own Treasury team. But she cannot be too unhappy with George W. Bush’s lineup there. …

“In his third try, Bush found the heavyweight Treasury secretary he desired in multi-millionaire investment banker Paulson. The trade-off is that the former Goldman Sachs chief executive does not act or sound much like a conservative Republican to the GOP remnant at the Treasury. ‘It’s not in Hank Paulson’s DNA,’ one official told me. Is he loyal to Bush? ‘Hank is for Hank,’ the official replied.”

OR IS OBAMA ON STAND-BY?

“Paulson marched to his own drummer last Tuesday by naming Eric Mindich, chairman of Eton Park Capital Management, to head the asset managers’ committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. A former Goldman Sachs colleague of Paulson’s, Mindich is a top-level Democratic fundraiser. He was in Sen. John Kerry’s inner circle for the 2004 presidential campaign and backs Sen. Barrack Obama for 2008.”

DO DEMOCRATS TAKE JOBS REPUBLICANS WON’T DO?

“Republicans in the administration were amazed that the White House acquiesced in appointing a Democratic activist to lead a group ‘to develop best practices’ for asset managers. These critics wonder why President Bush did not ask Paulson why he could not name a Republican financier for this position. …

“That includes the position of Bob Steel, undersecretary for domestic finance. Last Wednesday, Steel participated in a roundtable discussion on ‘recent financial market disruptions’ at the liberal Brookings Institution. Former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin headed the panel, which included two of his Clinton administration associates: his successor as secretary, Lawrence Summers, and former deputy secretary Roger Altman.

“Steel surely did not feel out of place as a Republican stranger in the Democratic paradise at Brookings, for he is no Republican. Brought to the Treasury by Paulson a year ago, Steel is a retired Goldman Sachs vice chairman who worked at the firm with Rubin and Paulson. Federal Election Commission records show no political contributions made by Steel since the 2002 cycle, when he gave exclusively to Democrats (including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York). Steel, who is chairman of the board of trustees of Duke University in Durham, N.C., contributed to the North Carolina Democratic Party and its Senate candidates, Dan Blue and Erskine Bowles.

“Although Paulson was a generous Republican contributor and prodigious Bush fundraiser (over $100,000) in the 2004 cycle, his earlier political giving was more varied. He contributed to Bill Clinton in 1992, Democrat Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign, the feminist Emily’s List and Wall Street’s favorite Democratic, Schumer. Most of the Paulson family’s Democratic contributions come from the secretary’s wife, Wendy, who has supported Hillary Clinton.” Source: Robert Novak, The Washington Post, 10/1/07, p. A19

Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of June 15, 2006

SELECTION OF HENRY PAULSON TO BE U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY IS A VICTORY FOR THE BIG BUSINESS, BIG BANK, NEW WORLD ORDER ESTABLISHMENT

In his latest effort to consolidate his New World Order, Big Business Establishment credentials, President Bush has named the Chairman of Goldman Sachs to be his Treasury Secretary.

MRS. PAULSON GAVE $11,000 TO HILLARY CLINTON

While Paulson served as a Bush “pioneer” in the 2004 campaign, raising more than $100,000 for the President’s reelection, his wife, Wendy, has contributed heavily to Democrats, including $11,000 to New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her Political Action Committee. Most of the $55,000 contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Paulson that went to Democrats came from Wendy Paulson.

PAULSON PREFERS ENVIRONMENTALISM TO PROPERTY RIGHTS

Steven Milloy, portfolio manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, says “Paulson is extremely weak on property rights. …He has basically used corporate assets to pursue his personal interest. …When the conservative base finds out what Paulson really stands for, they’re going to be up in arms”.

According to the Free Enterprise Action Fund, in a shareholders resolution earlier this year, Paulson “looted shareholder assets when Goldman spent $35 million to buy land in Chile to donate to the Wildlife Conservation Society”.

Mr. Paulson, a fervent environmentalist who has been Chairman of the Nature Conservancy, has actively supported the Kyoto “global warming” Treaty, and backed Bill Bradley for President when the former New Jersey Senator was a candidate in the Y2K campaign.

AS EHRLICHMAN SUBORDINATE PAULSON HELPED PRESERVE “GREAT SOCIETY”

Paulson served, during the Nixon Administration, on the staff of RN’s liberal Domestic Council chief, John Ehrlichman, at a time when Ehrlichman did all he could to thwart my efforts to close down the $3 billion “Great Society”, through which Federal funds were provided to promote “welfare rights”, abortion, homosexual activism, Indian reservation extra-territoriality, AZTLAN, and voting rights for illegal aliens, among other dangerous policies.

PAULSON HAS PROFITED FROM HIS COLLABORATION WITH CHINESE COMMUNISTS

Of particular concern is Paulson’s close relationship with the leaders of Communist China. When Chicom Party Chief Hu Jintao visited the White House recently, Paulson and his wife, Wendy, were invited to participate in a private lunch with the Red Chinese boss.

“Speaking of Beijing’s top officials,” The New York Times reports, “Mr. Paulson told an audience of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania last year: ‘The leaders are very bright, pragmatic, and aware of their problems. They have done a great job at economic reform. In my opinion, that’s a better first step because until you have economic stability, political freedom isn’t going to make any difference. But I think the Chinese will loosen up on human rights and allow more political freedom.’

“Mr. Paulson’s frequent trips to China have paid big dividends, helping Goldman snare some of the biggest investment banking deals of the last decade there and giving it the first direct access to Chinese investors of any Western financial institution.” Sources: Brooke Masters, The Washington Post, 5/31/06, pp. D1, 3; Edmund Andrews and Jim Rutenberg, The New York Times, 5/31/06, pp. A1, C4

HENRY PAULSON: BACKER OF CHUCK SCHUMER, BILL BRADLEY, AND EMILY’S LIST

“ ‘EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest grassroots political network, is dedicated to taking back our country form the radical right wing by electing pro-choice Democratic women to federal, state, and local office.’ That’s how Emily’s List describes itself. It surely doesn’t sound like a group that shares President Bush’s stated goal of building ‘a culture of life.’ Yet Emily’s List is one of the groups supported by Henry Paulson, the President’ s new nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury. The Wall Streeter also backed the Senate campaign of New York’s Chuck Schumer (Democrat-Liberal). Schumer has been led the way in grilling any Bush judicial nominee he even suspects of ‘deeply held beliefs’ that might include respect for human life.

“Of course, George W. Bush might not be president at all if Henry Paulson’s choice had prevailed in 2000. Paulson donated to Sen. Bill Bradley’s (D-NJ) presidential campaign. Bradley ran against then-Vice President Al Gore (D) in the primaries - attacking Gore for having formerly supported the idea that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for abortions. The Bush Administration is reportedly long on loyalty among its appointees: had Paulson had his political way, someone besides the President and his party would now be doing the appointing and confirming.” Source: Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, Washington Update, 5/31/06