Now begins the Tony Sanchez feeding frenzy

It appears that the worst case scenario is unfolding in the Democratic Party. Everyone has known for months that in addition to everything else, Tony Sanchez lied on his 1996 appointment application. Everyone knows that you cannot tell lies and run for high office. You cannot do illegal drugs. You cannot have hired illegal aliens. You can't lie about "death threat" letters. Yet knowing that Tony Sanchez has done all these, the Democratic Party elite still tried to make him the gubernatorial candidate. 

The Republicans kicked Tony in the head 2 hours after he announced his candidacy when Phil Gramm immediately announced his retirement and took over the press until 911. The Democrats should have known then that Tony was DOA.

Now the Dallas Morning News did an investigative piece on Tony's corruption at Tesoro and his $1 million settlement. The fact is that Tony is an idiot who lends money he borrows at 10% to his friends at 8% hoping to make up the losses on volume, according to the Mr. Slover's article or Tony is just corrupt and acts like an idiot. We found out again today that he is a liar. (I think lying is what did Marty Akins in once the press got started.)

The Republicans have to respond to the Dallas Morning News article or give up their opportunity to bring up the matter at a later date. Mr. Slover forced the Republicans to play their application card much earlier than they had intended. Everyone in Austin knows that Tony Sanchez is loaded down with negative baggage. Everyone, including the Democrats, has always known that Tony has no chance of being governor. Yet the Democratic Party elite continued to try to foist this crook on the rank and file.

Tomorrow, the other 4 major papers in the state will pick up the application article through the AP or through one of their own reporters. Sanchez will be forced to answer directly as opposed to having one of his lackeys respond. (If his lackeys respond, he can always correct what was said.) My bet is that Sanchez will pull a Claytie Williams in his response (As if his idiotic responses to Mr. Slover's articles were not "Claytie" enough.) Mr. Sanchez is standing on a sand dune and the tide has just come in. The erosion has already begun and the burying will shortly follow.

The Enron stock questions should finish him off. His refusal to give up his personal tax return schedules with the details of his other lies as well as his trust income tax return will prove to be a major erosion of his dwindling support. The Enron transactions are there. He will eventually have to produce them. The implications of his appointment application lies lead everyone with a brain to wonder about the lies on the tax returns, especially since he has refused to release the accompanying schedules.

Then on top of all this, tomorrow there is going to be some articles on the school prayer issue that fizzled in Palestine last night. What I really want to read about is what is more important than standing up for God: such that Perry was in Waco last night and Sanchez was drinking with his South Texas buddies. Well what do you expect of men who worship money and power and only give lip service to God?

And Mr. Herman's article also begs the question of why Sanchez is still raising money for his campaign when he has been touted as the self financing savior of the Democratic Party. And why is he campaigning in South Texas when that is his stronghold. Unless he understands what the latest Scripps Howard poll showed in regards to his and Perry's Hispanic vote dropping a total of 22% since September. The Republican Hispanics in South Texas think Tony is a joke. I found that out when I went to Corpus Christi months ago. I think the people I talked to said something like, "who does he think he is when he tries to tell us what we are going to do. Those days are gone. He is no patron."

I think Tony will tell us tomorrow that he did not fill out that appointment application. Someone else did that. They also forged his name. I am sure there was a federal agent there overseeing it so it was not his fault he did not tell the whole truth.

Oh, yes. In 15 months Tony has not been able to get more than 18% of the vote against Perry's 52%. There have been five polls run this year and Tony just can't get above his high of 23%. He's going down. How can he be so low in the polls with Akins out of the race? Especially when Akins endorsed him.

And Ken Herman continues to run that stupid idiotic crud that Sanchez is the likely Democratic Candidate when everyone knows this is ridiculous. And everyone knows that Scripps Howard spun WorldPeace out of their last poll. It took them 4 extra days to do it. Sanchez is on self-destruct. It is just a matter of a few weeks.

Ok. So where are we. 

1) The Republicans are mad because they are having to use their silver bullets on Tony now instead of after the Democratic Primary.

2) The Democrats see that all of Tony's money is not going to save him. They know they will look stupid if they abandon him now. He knows he will look stupid if he quits. Tony also knows that the Enron bullets are coming. Tony knows he is going to jail just like WorldPeace said. He will not be able to buy out for $1 million this time. The Democrats can't bring in Maddox because there are no more liberals in Texas. Bill Hobby is too old. Morales, Morales and Kirk know that people of color can't be governor of Texas. Sam Houston is dead. Bentson likes Washington. Cunningham is too young. Oh God. It looks like WorldPeace.

As we say in the law business. The door has been opened. The end is near. Bye Bye Tony. Yesterday a billionaire. Today a candidate for governor. Tomorrow a candidate not. And soon a jail bird you will be. 

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

December 18, 2001

__________________

Sanchez Q&A: fact or fiction?
Dispute centers on candidate's answers on state application form
By Ken Herman

American-Statesman Staff

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Two years after he paid a $1 million settlement to end a federal review of his failed savings and loan, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez said in a sworn statement that he had never been involved with a business that had been investigated. 

Sanchez noted in an appointment application submitted to then-Gov. George W. Bush that he had been a director at a savings and loan "that went through federal receivership," but he made no mention of the settlement that ended the federal review of Tesoro Savings and Loan of Laredo, which failed in 1988. 

Sanchez, who attended private fundraising events in South Texas on Monday, was unavailable for comment. His appointment application has been widely circulated in political circles in recent months. 

Sanchez is favored to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Gov. Rick Perry next November. Perry is not expected to draw major opposition in the GOP primary. 

Glenn Smith, Sanchez's campaign manager, said the disclosure of the receivership shows that Sanchez, who was Tesoro's board chairman and principal shareholder, made no attempt to hide the situation, which he said was not an investigation. 

"There was no attempt to disguise the fact that the S&L went under. Nobody was misleading anybody," he said. "It wasn't like all of a sudden the feds flew in from Washington to investigate one S&L. There were hundreds of them. They had examiners there from the mid-'80s on." 

But Republicans moved quickly Monday to accuse Sanchez of failing to disclose relevant information. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano and vice chairwoman of the Senate Nominations Committee when Sanchez was confirmed, said she knew nothing about the $1 million settlement at the time. 

"The sworn document should have said that there was an investigation going on" from 1988 until the 1994 settlement, she said. "There was six years when they were investigating." 

The responses from Sanchez came to two questions on a "state appointment application" submitted to Bush, who named Sanchez to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. 

Sanchez answered "no" to questions concerning whether he or any business with which he had been involved had ever been the subject of an investigation of "any grievance or complaint." 

He also answered "no" to a question concerning whether he or any business "in which you have a material interest" had been "investigated, reprimanded, fined or suspended from doing business with any state or federal agency." 

In response to the first question, Sanchez pointed to his response to a bankruptcy-related question elsewhere on the application. His response to that question denied involvement in any bankruptcies but noted that he was on the board of a savings and loan "that went through federal receivership in the late 1980s, but to my knowledge it was not subject to any bankruptcy proceedings." 

"I think if you look at those questions, technically he did disclose the Tesoro matter with a written-out note," Smith said, adding that no "complaint" or "grievance" had been filed against Tesoro or its officials. 

Smith also noted that the second question asked about whether businesses "in which you have a material interest" had been investigated. 

"Tesoro no longer existed," Smith said, noting that the question was worded in the present tense. 

Tesoro failed in November 1988, requiring a federal bailout of $161 million. 

In 1994, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was considering a civil lawsuit against Sanchez and other former Tesoro officials, Sanchez paid the settlement that brought the matter to a close without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing. 

The settlement payment was disclosed Sunday by The Dallas Morning News, which reviewed thousands of pages of documents produced as a result of the Tesoro failure. A 1988 memo from a federal supervisory agent said Tesoro's management structure was "unstable, and the enforcement of adequate controls, policies and procedures is questionable." 

The agent's memo led to rejection of a rescue plan proposed by Sanchez. The agent deemed Tesoro's management and board "unacceptable," alleging risky lending practices, reckless growth, conflicts of interest, questionable expenditures, weak internal controls and noncompliance with regulatory agreements. 

In an interview last week with the Dallas newspaper, Sanchez discounted the criticism and defended Tesoro's management. He said practices at Tesoro were typical of Texas thrifts, which he said were harmed by the economy, lending regulations and unclear government directives. 

Sanchez said voters should measure his most noteworthy business flop against a career of other successes. "I am a businessman who has made a number of investments in 30 years, most of which worked," he said. 

Sanchez said he didn't profit personally from Tesoro. 

"I never took a dividend; I never took a salary. I think they paid me a couple of hundred bucks a meeting," he said. "And I lost several million dollars" in Tesoro stock that was rendered worthless by the failure, he said. 

When Tesoro folded in November 1988, it was $129 million in the red, with assets listed at $250.5 million. Its loan portfolio bulged with speculative land deals and investments in troubled business ventures. 

The deal makes clear that the thrift officials admit no wrongdoing. It said both sides were settling the matter after more than four years of wrangling "solely in order to avoid the uncertainty, burden, and expense of protracted litigation." 


The Associated Press contributed to this report. You may contact Ken Herman at kherman@statesman.com or 445-1718. 

Excerpts from application form 


Tony Sanchez filed an application for an appointment by then-Gov. George W. Bush in 1996. The application was filled out two years after Sanchez paid a $1 million settlement in relation to the failure of Tesoro Savings and Loan of Laredo. Here are some of the application questions and his answers: 


"Has any regulatory agency, on behalf of itself or any other person or entity, filed or investigated any grievance or complaint against you or a business in which you have a material interest? If yes, give details:" 

"No. (See page three for explanation)." 


Page three offered a response to a question concerning whether any bankruptcy proceedings had been filed involving any company "in which you have been a principal." 

Sanchez replied "no," but he added, "I was a member of the board of directors of a savings and loan that went through federal receivership in the late 1980s, but to my knowledge it was not subject to any bankruptcy proceedings." 

* 

"Have you or any company in which you have a material interest been investigated, reprimanded, fined or suspended from doing business with any state or federal agency? If yes, give details:" 

"No."