Accounting Fraud

George W. Bush vowed to get tough on corporate crime yesterday, declaring--on Wall Street, no less--that he would "end the days of cooking the books, shading the truth, and breaking our laws." At the same time, many people are wondering whether the ranks of lawbreakers include the president and his number two man, former Halliburton chief Dick Cheney.

In Bush's case, the accusations relate to a series of suspicious stock trades connected to the Harken Energy Corporation. Cheney's troubles fall closer to the Enron/Worldcom model, as they involve allegations of fraudulent accounting practices at Halliburton. Now the conservative group Judicial Watch has filed a shareholders' suit in Dallas against Cheney, other Halliburton directors, and professional book-cookers Arthur Andersen, claiming that they deceived investors by asserting better profits than the company had actually earned.

Give Judicial Watch credit for probing charges of corruption by Republicans and Democrats alike. Elsewhere, figures who eagerly plowed through Whitewater, Hillary's cattle futures, or similar Clinton scandals are suddenly playing defense for the new administration, while hack apologists for the Democrats seem intent on pretending that only Republicans engage in shady behavior.

In practice, corruption is as bipartisan as hot air. There will be a lot of the latter in the next few months, as politicians left and right turn on their former benefactors, loudly declaring their hatred for corporate criminality as they push a series of reforms that will do more to expand government than to curb fraud. Meanwhile, in the business world, who knows what bloated domino might be next to fall?