{"id":263,"date":"2008-06-19T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/?p=263"},"modified":"2008-06-19T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-19T14:30:00","slug":"mccaskill-shows-what-it-takes-to-be-a-senator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/mccaskill-shows-what-it-takes-to-be-a-senator\/","title":{"rendered":"McCaskill shows what it takes to be a Senator"},"content":{"rendered":"

In coming out against the Anheuser-Busch takeover by Belgian-based InBev, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) clearly illustrated<\/a> certain lessons about what it takes to be a Senator:<\/p>\n

1) Homework is unnecessary:<\/p>\n

Asked what specifically she could do to stop the sale, McCaskill said she wasn’t sure yet.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taken at face value, this statement represents a shocking lack of preparation. McCaskill has been in law for about 30 years. She and her staff have had over a week to study the situation around the bid, and the bid itself has been brewing longer than a full-bodied Bud–since February.<\/p>\n

2) Don’t worry about giving shareholders the finger:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“This is not a company that’s not successful,” McCaskill said. “This is not a company that’s in stress.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, Claire McCaskill thinks everything is just fine. The company is making money. As for the shareholders, who have last claim to the company’s money after the workers, suppliers, and government have taken their share, why should we care about what they think? So what if they have better prospects placing their money in similar firms? The fact that Anheuser-Busch’s stock price has gone nowhere<\/a> for five years while the rest of the world has gained over 60 percent is of no concern to McCaskill.<\/p>\n

3) Urge businessmen to breach their fiduciary responsibilities:<\/p>\n

She suggested the board should consider more than just profits.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For someone who is sworn to uphold the law, she shows a cavalier disregard for the most basic laws of business–the shareholders own the company, and the board is the steward for the shareholders. We already know that McCaskill thinks the shareholders can eat cake (see #2). But suggesting that the board should betray the trust placed in them by the shareholders just so she can look good to voters speaks poorly of her legal and moral acumen.<\/p>\n

4) Foment unnecessary fear among the people:<\/p>\n

“It feels like to too many people in our country right now that these are the kinds of jobs that are going away.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

InBev has given zero indication that their purchase will result in any job losses. A few senior managers might become redundant, but I doubt McCaskill is boo-hooing for C-suite executives, here.<\/p>\n

5) Speak in complete non sequiturs:<\/p>\n

“On behalf of me and all my friends that like nothing better than a Bud Light every summer, it makes us very upset.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s hard to imagine what her summer enjoyment of beer has to do with this sale. Do her friends think the sale of the company will reduce their ability to find a Bud, or that it might impair its taste (if that’s possible)? No chance of that. The main purpose of InBev’s purchase is to sell more beers, not less; nothing is expected to change in the manufacture of the beer. Maybe Claire and her friends are concerned that certain St. Louis offices will end up with brightly colored, Euro furnishings, with techno-salsa Muzak piped in the elevators? Really, Claire, what’s so upsetting to your friends? What do you know about the effects of this sale that we don’t?<\/p>\n

Clearly, the Show-me state<\/a> is tolerating a lot more vagueness and innuendo than it used to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In coming out against the Anheuser-Busch takeover by Belgian-based InBev, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) clearly illustrated certain lessons about what it takes to be a Senator: 1) Homework is unnecessary: Asked what specifically she could do to stop the sale, McCaskill said she wasn’t sure yet. Taken at face value, this statement represents a shocking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}