The Stealth Nominee
Don Evans is the Real Man to Beat
by Tamara Baker

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2000 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA -- Yes, Ashcroft and Norton and Abraham are scary people.

But you, the progressive reader, ought to also be very concerned about His Illegitimacy's stealth nominee, Don Evans as commerce secretary.

Here's why: 

As Joe Conason so accurately described in his February 2000 Harper's article "Notes on a Native Son", then-Governor Bush nominated Evans to the University of Texas Board of Regents. They then privatized the investments of the University by creating an entity called the University of Texas Investment Management Company -- or "UTIMCO" -- so that its workings were not subject to open meeting laws. 

Once they were safe from prying eyes, they began making huge investments in conservative corporations, which then donated large sums of soft money to George's gubernatorial re-election campaign. They funneled university money into massive donations for Bush, which resulted in Bush's having a 20-to-1 financial advantage over his Democratic opponent.

It seems all too likely that Evans will extort money in the same fashion as Sec. of Commerce. Corporate donors, fearful of being cut off from the GOP's gravy train, will shy away from Democrats and dump all their money into Republican coffers, thereby creating a de facto one-party state.

Now is the time for all good Ampol readers to come to the aid of their country, and stop the installment of chief Bush shakedown artist Don Evans in a position where he can remove what little remains of democracy in this country. You know what to do.