Friday, March 28, 2008
With Friends Like These ...
FOR THE RECORD: Albert Fall's name has been corrected in this column.
Of the Journal
I often wonder if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton think about our 29th president, Warren G. Harding.
It was Harding who noted during his troubled administration that, "My God, this is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with my enemies. ... But my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."
It seems the friends of Clinton and Obama should have them walking the floor at night.
One of the problems Harding faced was the Teapot Dome oil scandal that involved one of his political friends, Albert Fall. Fall represented New Mexico from statehood in 1912 until 1921 when Harding named him secretary of interior.
On Clinton's side of the campaign much attention has been focused on comments made by former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, Black Entertainment TV founder Bob Johnson, strategist James Carville and even Bill Clinton himself.
While Obama's campaign has had to put out fires caused by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, author Samantha Power and fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
Michele Obama, the candidate's wife and even Hillary herself have added to the seemingly never-ended snippets on TV about vocal gaffes.
The question that will be answered later by the voters is whether their "friends" will keep Obama and/or Clinton from being the nation's 44th president.
In a recent commentary, I wrote about the two 80-cent final payment checks I received after my IRA rollover adviser, without my consent, invested some of my retirement funds into WorldCom.
Well, Patricia McDonnell of Albuquerque can top that.
"You think you had it bad," noted McDonnell.
In 1991, her husband Robert worked for Allegheny International near Pittsburgh and had money taken out of his paycheck to buy shares in the company.
"He had 14 shares and the company wanted all share owners to hand in their shares because of company changes," she added. "We were told to send the shares in with registered mail. Of course, this was an expense.
"We were young, with small children and living on a budget. You can imagine how excited we were to get some cash back."
The check was for one cent!
"We were so excited with our refund check that I had to frame it," she added.
Harry Moskos is the Journal's letters editor. E-mail to hmoskos@abqjournal.com
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