SJ Mercury: Bush vows to punish corporate lawbreakers

"We'll vigorously pursue people who break the law, and I think that'll help restore confidence to the American people. Listen, there has been a period of time when everything seemed easy -- markets were roaring, capital everywhere, and people forgot their responsibilities...

"I have been calling for a renewed sense of responsibility in America, and that includes corporate responsibility," Bush said.

The Daily Enron: Bush's Insider Trading

The SEC investigated G. W. Bush for insider trading during his father's term as President and decided to take no action. Career SEC officials, clearly miffed by their inability to charge the son of a sitting President, made their feelings clear in a 1993 letter to Bush's attorney. In the letter, the SEC emphasized that the decision not to charge Bush "must in no way be construed as indicating that (Bush) has been exonerated."

Washington Post: Memo Cited Bush's Late SEC Filings. This report cites a lot of facts with no context on what they might mean. A thoroughly lacklustre piece of journalism.

MotherJones: Bush Family Values. This one takes the opposite approach to that of the Wash. Post.

Although a handful of good reporters for the New York Times, LA Times, Village Voice, and Wall Street Journal have diligently been digging through business records for months, something has been missing: an overview that "connects the dots" in the myriad deals that have been examined, making it clear that cashing in on influence has become a pattern of behavior extending through the first family.

Bottom line: Given the power and influence at play, it's not at all clear that Bush didn't do anything illegal. But of this we can be sure at the very least: he derived immense financial benefit from executive bonusses and privileges while at a company that was losing money. A stronger (but still accurate) version is that his daddy pulled a lot of strings to bail out his failing businesses more than once.