Congratulations to Mr. Donald Evans on his recent selection as campaign manager for the George W. Bush presidential campaign. Evans' tireless and quite successful work as the chief fundraiser for the Texas governor paid off big-time with a promotion to head honcho.
In addition to managing Bush's campaign, Evans chairs the University of Texas' Board of Regents. Appointed by Bush to the Board of Regents in 1995, Evans was later voted its chairman an enviable position that oversees the highly dubious University of Texas Investment and Management Corporation (UTIMCO).
UTIMCO and Evans have repeatedly dealt with conflict of interest issues regarding the manner in which it funnels taxpayer money to friends and private business partners of UTIMCO officials rather than investing it.
Outgoing chancellor Bill Cunningham and other UT officials have maintained that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what they do and frankly, they're a little upset we had the nerve to ask.
Evans, ever the workhorse, is also chairman and CEO of Tom Brown, Inc., an interstate oil company with interests outside of Texas. Coincidentally, Tom Brown, Inc. may have benefited greatly from a recent $150 million emergency tax break for oil companies Bush steamrolled through the Texas Legislature.
This "emergency" tax break left many Texas farmers and ranchers whose industries were also struggling wondering where their emergency relief was. Apparently, the plight of the besieged cotton farmer or cattleman doesn't garner the same compassion as an oil baron with a depressed profit margin.
A rabid fan of "free speech" in politics, Evans, dubbed a Bush campaign "Pioneer," promised to directly raise at least $100,000 for Bush's presidential campaign and much more indirectly.
One of those indirect contributions may have been funneled through UTIMCO to Maverick Capital Fund, a company owned by Dallas-based billionaire Sam Wyly. Wyly is responsible for taking out $2.5 million worth of attack ads on Bush's surging opponent in the Republican primaries, John McCain. The move helped tank McCain's presidential bid and apparently earned Evans the top spot in the Bush campaign.
In fact, there are at least five Bush-appointed UT and A&M regents that have each promised to directly raise at least $100,000 for Bush's campaign. It makes you wonder how all those regents find the time to hire and fire architectural firms, set up straw committees and dodge bonfire investigations when they are spending all their time raising money for the Bush campaign.
It's this dual-loyalty requirement that has helped make the regent system in Texas the most archaic, ineffectual and outright corrupt form of governance over higher education to date. Individuals are appointed from the business world, not academia, consistently making decisions based on bottom-line business economics rather than sensitivity to the learning environment.
In California, for example, they have a system of regents comprised of student and faculty representatives, as well as sitting legislators, in order to diversify opinions and decision-making.
Anyone wanting to distinguish between the merits of the two systems need look no further than the disparity between the California system which boasts seven flagship institutions and the Texas system that has a paltry two (And we're looking to make flagships out of the University of North Texas and Texas Tech University enough said).
Out of respect for higher education in Texas, Don Evans should either resign from his position as chairman of the Board of Regents or quit the Bush campaign and maintain his responsibilities to the position Bush appointed him to.
But being the astute businessman that he is, Evans realizes that he can best serve Bush by maintaining his control over UTIMCO and all the "juice" that comes with it.
You never know when Bush will need another desperate infusion of Texas taxpayer money to tip the election scales for him. If Evans was no longer chairman and unable to funnel money to Bush through UTIMCO, what use would he be to Bush?
True friendship. Is there nothing more beautiful?
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