Wayne Slater questions the sacred goat

I sincerely want to thank Mr. Slater of the Dallas Morning News for his article this morning on Tony Sanchez. Mr. Slater found some new material regarding Tony Sanchez's bank not filing reports regarding campaign contributions. And to no one's surprise one of Tony's employees fell on the sword for Tony. Well as Harry Truman said: "The buck stops here". Interestingly Tony Sanchez's favorite President was Harry Truman but he thought Truman said "Pass the buck there".

Taking a look back at the last 15 months we find that Tony Sanchez was annointed by the Democratic Party as the Hispanic to lead the Democratic Party to victory by bringing out all those Hispanics to vote and shift the down ballot races to the Democrats in 2002. Funny, because a whole lot of Hispanics just voted Republican in the Houston mayoral race. And there have been several articles in the last year showing that Hispanics are divided about 50/50 Democrat and Republican statewide; with the more affluent Hispanics voting Republican.

But lets consider that the great Sanchez did not campaign one significant bit for the last 15 months. He didn't even declare his candidacy until September 4, 2001, and then Phil Gramm upstaged him and stole all the press by announcing his retirement. Then 911 came along the following week and Tony told someone that there was no need to campaign until January out of silent respect for the victims. In short, Tony has been a flat bust as a campaigner. He didn't even come to Houston to try to neutralize the effect of Orlando Sanchez in the aid of Mayor Brown the Democrat. It would have been a good time for Tony to make an impact and to test the coming problems of Sanchez the Democratic candidate for governor and Orlando Sanchez the Republican mayor. And Houston is a real big city with lots of voters. Maybe the corrupt Lee Brown did not want a corrupt Tony Sanchez to help him.

Has anyone done a study on how much money that the billionaire Tony contributed to the local Democratic campaigns? You know he was going to spend $30 million. Maybe that was all on himself? And the way it looks now, it is all going to be spent in January and February. That's about $3 million per week when most feel that you can run a real significant conventional statewide campaign for about $1.5 million per week. 

Oh well, Tony didn't want to campaign for anyone else in the May or in the November races this year. Just what you would expect of someone who really wants to be governor and who wants to be a real Party leader. And he didn't want to spend any money on anyone either. You know if he didn't want to campaign, he could have at least sent some money.

Consider all Tony's banking corruption and money laundering. I have called on the Gov to demand an investigation of the Tony banks but so far no response. Has anyone considered what the Enron destruction brought on by Ken Lay, Lee Brown's best buddy, is going to do to Tony Sanchez. No one can now say one of the corporate giants of America can not fold up in ten months. Everyone is looking a lot closer at these corporations that grow real real fast; like Tony's IBOC.

You know as a person who has worked with businesses for over 30 years, I know that solid companies are not run in such a way where forms are not filed out and $25 million in drug money is not noticed. My experience is that when the money is flowing incredibly great, no one cares too much about details. So if you are laundering drug money as fast as you can, a source of money that will never dry up, why worry about a few campaign reports. Why should a CEO concern himself. And what about that $139 million taxpayer bailout due to Tony's mismanagement of Tesoro Savings and Loan. And how does he go from bankrupting Tesoro in 1986 to building a $6 billion banking empire by 2001. It all stinks and I know that I am not the only one who is smelling it.

And what about the fact that the Republicans are just waiting until Tony wins the Democratic primary for governor so the next day they can turn the Texas Department of Banking on Tony's bank. Do you think the Gov would do that? Do you think the Gov would patiently wait like Phil Gramm did and then blow Tony up right as he wins the Democratic primary? And what then? How could the Democrats field another viable candidate for governor at that late date?

All this about banking; what about that "death threat" letter? And calling Henry Cuellar a homosexual. And no military service at a time when little george says we are at war. And those illegal aliens tony has employed everywhere. And his drug use. And his drug lord defending buddy Tony Canales. And drilling on state lands. 

Between now and March there are only three races to report and they are all in the Democratic Party; the senate race that Ken Bentson will win, the Land Commissioner that no one really cares about and the Governor's race between Sanchez and WorldPeace. Slim pickens for the next three months. 

The real motherload of reporting is Tony Sanchez's negative baggage and his glaring failure to lead the Democratic Party anywhere in the last 15 months; or should I say be involved in the Democratic Party; must be his Republican elitism.

And then there is the lesser motherload of reporting an enigma like WorldPeace. But with WorldPeace, all that there is to report is positive stuff. But there is that possibility of the Democratic primary becoming a referendum on WorldPeace in reaction to little george's looking for new countries to destabilize like Iraq and North Korea and more restricting of civil liberties and military tribunals where little george can play God and hang terrorist behind closed doors. 

Remember Joe McCarthy and the communist witch hunt. Well prepare for a smaller version with the terrorist. I say smaller because we know all the terrorist are dark skinned and worship in mosques. Oh wait, I forgot about Tim McVeigh. God help us with John Ashcroft and little george ferretting out neighorhood terrorists. You can't bomb terrorists in American neighborhoods can you? 

You know Tim McVeigh learned his skills in the U S military and served in the Gulf War. Just to be safe, we need to let John Ashcroft have unlimited surveilance on all returning veterans from Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, and Cuba, yeah Cuba. Little george can under the guise of terrorism win all those wars we lost. Wow, the ultimate legacy.

Anyone for tempering little george with WorldPeace?

Thanks again Wayne, you have renewed my faith in the press. 

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

November 30, 2001

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Sanchez bank facing fines 
Business didn't file reports on candidate gifts for almost 2 years 

11/30/2001 

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News 

AUSTIN – The Laredo bank controlled by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez has failed for almost two years to file reports on its financial contributions to political candidates as required by law. 

An aide said Mr. Sanchez was unfamiliar with the administration of his bank's political action committee but called the omission "a stupid mistake" and said it would be corrected immediately. 

Both the Federal Election Commission and the Texas Ethics Commission sent notices to the International Bank of Commerce repeatedly during 2000 and 2001 warning that the PAC was delinquent in filing reports. 

Failure to file the reports carries potential civil penalties ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the circumstances, according to regulators. 

After an inquiry this week by a reporter, the bank acknowledged it had failed to report its donations, and a vice president, Jorge Haynes, took responsibility. 

"There's no excuse," said Mr. Haynes. "It wasn't a secretary. It wasn't [IBC Chairman] Dennis Nixon. It wasn't Tony Sanchez. I didn't take care of it." 

Mr. Sanchez is the largest stockholder and a member of the board of directors of the International Bank of Commerce, founded by his father. 

Mr. Sanchez and his family own 30 percent of the bank's stock. 

Michelle Kucera, the campaign spokeswoman, said Mr. Sanchez is not a member of the committee that decides which candidates to support. 

"He doesn't decide who receives contributions from the PAC, and he doesn't supervise the day-to-day administration of it," she said. 

"However," she said, "when he learned that the filings were not in order, he made sure the appropriate steps will be taken. And they're being filed now." 

According to an accounting provided by the bank, the PAC made more than $100,000 in campaign contributions to federal and state candidates over the last two years. 

The bank contributed $5,000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, $500 to Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and various sums to both Republican and Democratic state and local candidates in Texas. 

Among contributions to state candidates last year were $5,000 to Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo; $500 to Sen. Carlos Trujan, D-Corpus Christi; and $1,000 to Rep. John Shields, R-San Antonio. 

The bank PAC also contributed $500 in August 2000 to Rick Perry, who was then lieutenant governor and is now Mr. Sanchez's GOP opponent in the governor's race. 

According to the bank, a committee of IBC executives administers the PAC. 

The money comes from bank employees and members of the board of directors, including Mr. Sanchez, according to reports. 

As a candidate for governor, Mr. Sanchez has touted his business experience as a reason voters should elect him. 

"Professional politicians there [in Austin] for a long time have not been able to fix the problems. It's time to let someone with business knowledge to come in and run this government efficiently," Mr. Sanchez has told supporters. 

The failure of the bank PAC to report its donations is the latest case in which Mr. Sanchez has said he was not involved in problems with his businesses. 

In October, Mr. Sanchez said he was unaware, before a Time magazine report, that officials from his bank were fighting efforts in Washington to crack down on money laundering by terrorists and other criminals. The bank has reversed its position. 

Earlier this year, Mr. Sanchez said he didn't know that a Laredo savings and loan he operated in the 1980s had laundered $25 million in drug money. 

Of Mr. Sanchez's lack of involvement in the bank PAC, Ms. Kucera said he expects employees "to do the right thing and take care of business," but he takes responsibility to fix the problem. 

A review of campaign records indicates a pattern in which Mr. Sanchez and the PAC have made similar contributions on the same date to the same politician. 

For example, the same month that the PAC contributed $5,000 to Ms. Zaffirini last year, Mr. Sanchez contributed $10,000. 

On the same date, last Jan. 23, both the PAC and Mr. Sanchez made donations to state Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. 

On the same dates in 1998 and in 1996, both the PAC and Mr. Sanchez contributed $25,000 apiece to Mr. Bush, then governor, according to state records. 

Ms. Kucera said it was coincidental, not the result of active knowledge and involvement in the PAC, that Mr. Sanchez and the committee sometimes made contributions to the same person on the same day. 

"These contributions could be surrounding a fund-raiser or a solicitation on a certain day," she said. 

A spokeswoman at the FEC in Washington said the agency would review the bank's delinquent filings before determining whether fines should be imposed. 

According to the Texas Ethics Commission, the bank's failure to file has been turned over to the attorney general's office. 

The PAC donations to political candidates are in addition to donations the bank makes directly to the political parties. 

Under federal law, companies must form political action committees and report their giving to political candidates. 

Corporations can give directly to the parties, which must file the reports. 

Last year, the bank gave $100,000 to the Republican National Committee as the GOP prepared to defend Mr. Bush in the disputed presidential election. 

Researcher Rob Giacobbe in Austin contributed to this report.