Word: wrights
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Wright admits that he put pressure on the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in 1986 to soften regulatory proceedings against a Dallas real estate syndicator and some Texas savings and loan associations. He says, however, he was merely "acting as an ombudsman" for the constituents he represents, which is not just a right but a duty for a Congressman. Wright seems to have been rather incurious about the constituents he went to bat for -- one has since been charged with helping to defraud the S and L he headed of $40 million. Nonetheless, Wright has a defense unavailable to Meese...
...some other respects, however, Wright is no more easily defended than Meese. One allegation is that Wright, who was then House majority leader, threatened in 1986 to block legislation injecting desperately needed cash into the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, the agency that insures depositors in thrift institutions, until one regulatory case was decided to his satisfaction. If true -- and Wright denies it -- such an attempt to hold up urgent legislation would constitute a blatant abuse of his office...
Moreover, Wright received an unheard-of royalty of 55% (normal would be 10% to 15%) on sales of an alleged book, a thin and uninteresting collection of random thoughts published by a Fort Worth printer and longtime Wright pal. Some of the buyers have candidly admitted that they bought the book in bulk as a way to make donations to Wright that would have been legally forbidden in any other form...
...Wright's only defense has been that he did not break any House rule, and that might be true. House limits on members' outside income specifically exclude book royalties, and a rule against accepting speaking or writing fees "in excess of the usual and customary value for such services" may not apply to book writing. But at best this is a technical defense for what seems an obvious and unwarranted attempt to evade House rules regulating members' outside income. In any case, simply avoiding the commission of an indictable offense is no qualification for either Speaker of the House...
Elements of the design are as old as powered flight itself. The original Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer was of the canard type, with a pair of horizontal stabilizers mounted in front of the pilot. Though the shape had certain advantages in slow-speed flight -- it was highly resistant to stalls -- it proved too unstable at high speeds, and was eventually abandoned in favor of aircraft with stabilizers fixed to their tails. Now, with computers available to design planes and with fly-by-wire controls to help steer them, Beech and ) Piaggio have revived the original concept...