Word: deweyitis
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Perhaps John Dewey, the greatest American "philosopher of democracy," described a deliberative style of politics best when he insisted that "Majority rule, just as majority rule, is as foolish as its critics charge it with being...The means by which a majority comes to be a majority is the more important thing: antecedent debates, modification of views to meet the opinions of minorities, [and] perfecting processes of inquiry." Writing in the late 1920s, when many authors questioned the viability of democratic processes, Dewey discerned the preconditions for reform: "The essential need, in other words, is the improvement of the methods...
...EVERYONE AT THE BANK IN FLIPPIN WAS COMFORTABLE ABOUT what was happening. Vernon Dewey, a loan officer at 1st Ozark, thought it was imprudent and that the bank should call the loan. He'd written the Clintons repeatedly asking, then demanding, that they provide a financial disclosure. He couldn't understand why the Clintons wouldn't provide it. Surely they understood that no matter what the statements showed, the bank was all but certain to renew the loan since he was the Governor. The Whitewater loan was the only one in the bank's portfolio that had such irregular documentation...
...Dewey's argument seemed to make the board nervous. Clinton was, after all, the Governor. Edward M. Penick, president of Twin City and ex-officio chairman of 1st Ozark, said he'd take up the matter personally. He knew Hillary somewhat; Hillary and the Rose firm had successfully represented Twin City in a complicated bond case. Penick drafted the letter and sent it to Hillary at the Rose firm...
After the previous year's struggle to get a financial-disclosure form from the Clintons, it came as no surprise to Vernon Dewey that no updated statement was forthcoming. This year the bank appears to have simply given up. On July 13, Hillary signed and returned just the renewal note. "I am enclosing the renewal note you sent for Bill's and my signature." There is no mention of the financial statement, and none appears to have been submitted...
...initials WS, evidently referring to Wes Strange. According to the document, reasons for the waiver were that the escrow account was making the payments, and the value of the collateral was "sufficient." Still, waiving such a requirement was highly irregular, especially on a commercial loan, and Vernon Dewey felt it was imprudent to do so. For the first time, the bank now had no current financial-disclosure forms for any of the borrowers. This was the only loan in the bank lacking such documentation. As Strange told Dewey, the troublesome loan was just something they'd have to live with...