Word: bert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...faith in the character and competence of Bert Lance has been reconfirmed. His services to this country can and should continue...Bert, I'm proud...
Jimmy Carter offered that resounding endorsement of Bert Lance, his embattled director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a hastily called White House press conference last week. By interrupting his vacation at Camp David and flying to Washington, the President was not only dramatizing his support for Lance but also signaling his belief that the worst of Bert's problems were over. It was a bold and risky move by Carter as he faced his most serious personnel decision since he took office seven months...
Though it may touch their lives in several ways, most Americans had never heard of correspondent banking until the troubles of Budget Boss Bert Lance hit the headlines. One suspicion that was raised about Lance was that he used his position as head of the relatively small National Bank of Georgia to get personal loans from bigger banks with which the NBG had correspondent relationships. Although Comptroller of the Currency John Heimann last week found that Lance had done nothing to warrant criminal prosecution, he added that the whole affair "raises unresolved questions about what constitutes acceptable banking practice...
...office is a federal backwater, responsible only for the important but dull job of regulating the 4,600 national banks. Suddenly, the comptroller's quarters at the L'Enfant Plaza hotel are among the busiest in Washington, as U.S. bank examiners press their potentially explosive investigation of Bert Lance's financial affairs. The comptroller's lengthy report is due soon, perhaps this week, and could save or squash the powerful budget director, who is Jimmy Carter's old pal, former creditor and longtime close confidant. Says Deputy Comptroller C. Westbrook Murphy...
Presidential assistants were still betting that Lance would be cleared of intentional wrongdoing. Said one: "Bert Lance would never knowingly do anything illegal." They were much less sure that he would not be cited for bad judgment or playing a bit too loose with his banking relationships or potential conflicts of interest. A feeling was growing in the White House that Lance had, at the very least, violated Carter's requirement that appointees avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and so might have to resign. If Lance's position should become untenable, Carter's associates doubt that...