Campaign consultant James Carville gave Bill Clinton a simple business plan in 1992: It's the economy, Bill. Well, like the earnings of too many of America's leading corporations, that advice was not transparent.

Carville was masterminding a presidential campaign. But he may have had something else in mind. For, while the official product of Clinton-Gore, Inc. was a strong economy and national defense, its real product was generating campaign dollars. Their business plan was simple and was wildly successful -- access, White House visits, overnights, implying policy "adjustments".

Several American corporate giants are under investigation, indictment or subpoena - Xerox, Kmart, Lucent Technologies, Halliburton, Rite Aid, Qwest. Even the tech giant, Microsoft, recently and quietly agreed to settle for "irregular accounting practices") with the Securities Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) [detail].

How would Clinton-Gore, Inc. fare under S.E.C. investigation?

Restated Earnings. Several companies have been forced to restate earnings-Lucent Technologies, CMS Energy, for example. We believe that Clinton-Gore, Inc. should be forced to restate earnings. They claimed they created a strong economy. During the final years of Clinton-Gore, Inc. most investors in the stock found that their profits eroded. Thousands of workers who took stock options as compensation watched their options fade to zero. Consumer Credit reached $1.5 trillion. Clinton-Gore, Inc. left the White House with America in a plunging recession.

Overstated Revenue. Companies like Network Associates have been ordered to adjust overstated revenues. We think that Clinton-Gore, Inc. is inline for an adjustment. They claimed full credit for the federal government surpluses of the nineties. Astute observers know that the deficit wasn't transformed into surpluses until the Democrats loss control of Congress.

Hidden Partnerships. Enron is the prime corporate suspect here.. But we must refer to the multi-year relation of Mochtar Riady and his son James with Clinton-Gore, Inc. The Riady's control the Indonesian-based Lippo Group conglomerate. Since his days as governor of Arkansas and through his presidency, Bill Clinton benefited from millions of dollars raised for his campaigns or the Democratic Party.

Understated Expenses. Worldcom is charged with booking $3.8 billion in expenses as capital expenditures. We believe that the S.E.C. should also investigate hundreds of unpublicized, small gatherings held by Clinton-Gore, Inc. aimed at rewarding the largest donors with access to the highest echelons of power. These "gatherings" were actually expenses paid by taxpayers' dollars.

Insider Trading. ImClone's C.E.O. Samuel Waksal, Martha Stewart, Enron and Worldcom executives are the immediate focus of an S.E.C investigations into insider trading. We reference Hillary Clinton's $100,000 profit on a $1,000 investment in cattle futures.

Physical Casualities. To date, the corporate scandals have resulted in one suicide. Former Enron Corp. vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter found dead in his car in a Houston suburb. Clinton-Gore, Inc. had its famous "suicide"-that of Vince Foster. But the body count is far greater if you wish to stretch it --At least 62 questionable murders, suicides and mysterious deaths of people related to the Clinton-Gore, Inc. operation. (For conspiracy theorists, visit http://www.zpub.com/un/un-bc-body.html.)

In sum, the president is the moral or immoral leader of the country. Corporate leaders play an elaborate game of follow the leader-in this case, the leader Bill Clinton set a theme. It was "bottom line" politics during Clinton-Gore, Inc.

We were lectured by C.E.O., Bill Clinton, that so long as the economy was humming along, we shouldn't question his extra-curricular and extra-marital rendezvous. Some corporate leaders properly took their cue from Bill Clinton. They delivered dazzling results to enhance stock value. They played bottom line business management -- by overstating revenues, misstating and hiding expenses, and profiting on insider information.

Bill Clinton believed his legacy would be one of the greatest economic booms in history. Historians will have to take a second look now at the cost of Clinton prosperity. His immoral leadership did have consequences.

Clinton-Gore, Inc. may join Worldcom, Enron, Global Crossing and others in weakening America's economic integrity. Hopefully, only temporarily.

• Write to Arthur at bruzzone@rightturns.com

Award-winning TV producer, talk show host, and Republican leader Arthur Bruzzone has written over 150 political articles for national and regional media, and has commented on political issues for American and European television and radio networks.  His articles and columns have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Campaign & Elections Magazine, among other publications.

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