http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=216

Allbaugh's confirmation hearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled for Feb. 13. If Democrats break the conspiracy of silence about Funeralgate by calling Eliza May to explain her allegations against Bush and Allbaugh, the country may get a jolting preview of a presidential lawsuit that could make the Paula Jones case look like mere gossip.

May, the fired executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission, charges that Gov. Bush lied under oath in an affidavit when he flatly denied that he had spoken to anyone involved about a regulatory crackdown her agency instituted against one of his major political contributors - or that he even had any knowledge of the facts of the matter. His sworn affidavit has already been contradicted at least four times, including by conflicting testimony from one of his appointees in a deposition taken on Oct. 17. May has informed the court (on page 89 of her July 10 filing) that "multiple witnesses have testified or otherwise indicated that Governor Bush gave a false sworn statement in this case."

http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-10-27/pols_naked6.html (2)

Learning exactly what Bush swore and exactly how his affidavit has been contradicted would have caused voters to question Bush's claim to moral superiority. Arguably, the withholding of that basic information from the electorate and the failure of the press to ask Bush to explain his side of the story amounts to the elite media having thrown a presidential election.

Though from the start legal experts warned that Bush was at extreme jeopardy from May's case and should settle it before being required to testify, all efforts to get this 23 month-old lawsuit disposed of have failed. After his sworn affidavit was contradicted, Bush was added as a defendant in April of last year. Asserting that Bush "knowingly permitted his staff to intervene improperly" in an investigation by her agency, her suit alleges that his actions were intended to "subvert the lawful conduct of public officials in the performance of their official duties." A Jan. 26 article in the Austin Chronicle on the latest developments in the case, entitled "The Lawsuit That Wouldn't Die," predicts that Bush will be ordered to testify this year.

http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bush_campaign/controversies/0826bush2funeral.htm
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-05-05/pols_features5.html
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2001-01-26/pols_naked5.html (3)

May contends that Bush and his staff impeded her investigation of the world's largest chain of funeral homes, Service Corporation International, whose founder and CEO, Robert Waltrip, is a bountiful supporter of the Bush family. The tough-talking Houston tycoon, whose mortuaries are said to bury one in nine Americans, contributed $45,000 to Governor Bush and over $100,000 to the Bush presidential library, as well as providing a $70,000 honorarium for a speech by President Bush, the use of his corporate jet, and other generosities.

http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/04/18/bush/print.html
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/08/20/timeline/index.html (4)

After receiving information about the use of unlicensed embalmers, May launched an investigation of SCI mortuaries, including surprise inspections. The TFSC inspectors allegedly found that unlicensed embalmers had been employed - with macabre results. Complaints were subsequently filed about gruesomely inept embalmings - including a protest by anguished parents that their son's body "leaked maroon fluid" and drew gnats. Presented for open viewing, a man's body had been so over-pumped with embalming fluid that it was oozing from his eyes, ears and mouth - causing his younger brother to run away screaming, "That's not my brother!" Enraged by May's "raids" and demands for records, Waltrip exercised what his spokesman called his "constitutional right" to take his protests "up the ladder" to Gov. Bush.

http://www.reporternews.com/1999/opinion/ivins0816.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush082399.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/elect2000/pres/bush/19990 905/t000079438.html (5)

May alleges that she was then pressured by Bush aides to back off. According to her lawsuit against Bush, Waltrip, SCI, and the TFSC, on May 18, 1998 she was summoned to the office of Joe Allbaugh, then Gov. Bush's chief of staff, for an intimidating meeting with Waltrip. Bush's General Counsel, Margaret Wilson, was also in attendance, although Allbaugh refused admittance to a court reporter May had brought with her to record the meeting. She says Allbaugh allowed state Senator John Whitmire, who represents Waltrip's home district, to grill her about the investigation in front of the mortuary tycoon. (p.8)

http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue30/pols.funeral.html
http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.sci.side1.html (6)

In his written answers to questions from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, posted on Democrats. com at http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=214, Allbaugh - whose nickname is The Enforcer - says that his role in the meeting was merely that of "a facilitator." His explanation for his extraordinary session with the TFSC officials and Waltrip is that "even though the governor's office had no power or authority to compel action by either the TFSC or SCI, I accepted the invitation to facilitate resolution of their dispute over the TFSC's demand for SCI records." Allbaugh told the Senate committee, "The meeting concluded when I asked TFSC's general counsel to provide a list that afternoon of the documents TFSC required, and indicated I would provide that list to Senator Whitmire's staff immediately thereafter. I did so, and the parties soon resolved their dispute over this issue." The major questions are, of course, why Allbaugh "accepted the invitation" and why he refused to allow the meeting to be recorded.

May's version is that "the meeting ended with Allbaugh, in a hostile a peremptory tone, demanding that TFSC staff deliver to him by 1:00 p.m. that afternoon a letter stating exactly what documents TFSC staff required to close the investigation"- thereby intervening in the investigation of SCI and giving "improper and illegal directions to TFSC and May." (Page 9)

After SCI was fined $445,000 by the commission for improper embalming procedures and other violations, May claims the legislature came under pressure from SCI and the governor's office to shut down the agency - and that in Feb. of '99, she was fired as a result of Waltrip's wrath, using the excuse that another commission employee had complained that she asked him to research SCI's campaign contributions. SCI hasn't paid the fine, so Allbaugh's remarkable claim that the parties "resolved their dispute" is obviously problematic. And after being restructured and losing most of its enforcement powers, the agency has been undergoing a "sunset review" and reportedly may be eliminated soon. (7)

Allbaugh told the Senate committee that a meeting he had with May alone in Aug. of 1998 - after the TFSC had announced its fine against SCI - was "inconsequential from my perspective." May says that after Allbaugh summoned her, he refused to allow another TFSC staff member, who had accompanied her, to enter his office: "loudly and rudely stating to May that 'This is between you and me!'" Then 'Allbaugh simply demanded more information about the status of the SCI investigation and finally announced, 'This isn't going anywhere." (Page 49)

On July 20, 1999, in an affidavit intended to persuade the court to reject May's request to depose him, Gov. Bush swore: "I have had no conversations with Texas Funeral Services Commission officials, agents or representatives concerning the investigation of SCI by the Texas Funeral Services Commission or any dispute arising from it. I have had no conversations with SCI officials, agents, or representatives concerning the investigation or any dispute arising from it. I have no personal knowledge of relevant facts of the investigation nor do I have any personal knowledge of relevant facts concerning any dispute arising from this investigation. I have never asked anyone to take a role or to become involved in any way in this investigation or any dispute arising from it or given direction to anyone who might be involved in the SCI investigation or dispute." (8)

Of course, there would have been nothing wrong with Gov. Bush having known about the investigation of SCI or the dispute arising from it or having spoken with those involved about the matter. But that he locked himself into such unequivocal denials is the crux of his problem, which may result in the distraction of another sensational presidential lawsuit. The obvious question is why Bush's lawyers had him risk locking himself into such flat-out denials when he knew they could be contradicted. Why was it so necessary for him to avoid being questioned under oath?

Given this incautious affidavit, May's lawyers introduced an August 1999 Newsweek expose' (http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1328) by Michael Isikoff, who developed the Monica Lewinsky scandal by covertly working with Linda Tripp, Lucianne Goldberg, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones's lawyers and the Office of the Independent Counsel. Isikoff got key Funeralgate players to go on the record with contradictions of Bush's sworn statement. He told of a meeting on April 15, 1998 with Waltrip and his lawyer in Allbaugh's office during which Bush stopped by and said to Waltrip, "Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with you?" Isikoff reported that when Waltrip said they were, Bush turned to the wealthy mortician's lawyer/lobbyist, Johnnie B. Rogers, and asked if he was "taking care of him." (9)

Not surprisingly, Allbaugh's statement to the Senate committee about the May case omits any reference to the events of April 15, 1998 - which may become a major problem for resident Bush. Before the meeting reported by Isikoff, May alleges that Waltrip and Rogers "appeared at May's office with his written 'complaint' about the TFSC investigation. The last page of the 'complaint' reflected that Waltrip was going to deliver a copy to Governor Bush." (Page 6)

Then "approximately forty-five minutes after Waltrip and Rogers left May's office . . . Allbaugh called May, who was not available. All of the testimony to date indicates that Gov. Bush personally spoke with Waltrip and Rogers at that time." In addition to introducing the Isikoff expose', May has informed the court that in response to Request for Admission No. 263, Waltrip has admitted speaking to Bush in 1998 about the TFSC investigation, and that further, in response to Interrogatory No. 4, Waltrip admitted that "on or about April 15, 1998, Mr. Robert Waltrip spoke to Governor Bush regarding Mr. Robert Waltrip's April 15, 1998 letter [complaining about the TFSC investigation] to the Texas Funeral Service Commission." (Pages 89-90)

The latest contradiction of Bush's affidavit comes from one of Bush's appointees, Charles 'Dick' McNeil, a former chairman of the funeral commission, who testified in a deposition taken on Oct. 17 that in the fall of 1998 Bush briefly inquired about the agency's "problems" with SCI. McNeil swore that during a short conversation Bush said, "Have you got - you and Bob Waltrip - are you and Mr. Waltrip got your problems worked out?" After McNeil answered that they were still trying to work on it, and added, "I hope that we have not been an embarrassment to you or any of this administration," he says the governor said he wasn't an embarrassment to him and told him, "Do your job." Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Dallas Morning News that McNeil was mistaken.

http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-10-27/pols_naked6.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/198393_funeral_24tex..html(11)

After state district Judge John Dietz, a Democrat, ruled in August that May's lawyers had to wait until after the election to depose Bush and Allbaugh, May's lawyer, Charles Herring, Jr. told the Dallas Morning News that because McNeil's deposition is "flatly inconsistent with the governor's sworn statement . . . we will proceed with our efforts to depose the governor." Now, reportedly, their depositions are pending. And May's team has filed evidence with the court that Texas Attorney General John Cornyn was also involved in the alleged conspiracy by "covering up their prior improper, illegal actions" in preventing May and the TFSC from enforcing the law. (12)

Potentially, it appears that May's lawsuit about funerals gone dreadfully wrong could be a far more serious matter than the Paula Jones case since it involves allegations of influence-peddling and a cover-up of serious official misdeeds rather than personal misconduct. As the Austin Chronicle's Robert Bryce put it, "the most disturbing part of this mess is that at no time did Bush, Allbaugh, SCI, Cornyn, or Whitmire act on behalf of, or show any concern for, Texas consumers. Instead they acted to protect the fat cats. That's the scandal." May, however, is a Democrat, who once served as the Texas Democratic Party treasurer, and the Bush team asserts that the suit is politically motivated and frivolous.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/08/20/bush/print.html (13)

But considering that the Jones case was dismissed as meritless, the inauguration of the younger Bush, who campaigned as the un-Clinton, may not mean an end to sensational presidential courtroom drama. He and his nominee to fill the shoes of James Lee Witt at FEMA may have their denials that they punished an agency head for acting to protect the public credibly disputed. A worst-case scenario with the May case trial could have both Bush and Allbaugh's credibility in ruins during an Oklahoma City bombing disaster.

Belatedly - and before the confirmation of Allbaugh - the public needs to hear specific explanations for Bush's contradicted affidavit and for his special assistance to Waltrip. Because, call it karma, revenge, justice, the way of the world, or just reality, the Eliza May case about funeral fraud and stinky oozing bodies looms as the irresistible means for a Gothic comeuppance.

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Concerned citizens may wish to urge Democrats on the Governmental Affairs Committee to call Eliza May to explain her allegations against Allbaugh at his confirmation hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13.

Democrats on the Governmental Affairs Committee:

Joe Lieberman, CT, ranking member senator_lieberman@lieberman.senate.gov
Carl Levin, MI senator2@levin.senate.gov
Daniel Akaka, HI senator@akaka.senate.gov
Dick Durbin, IL dick@durbin.senate.gov
Robert Torricelli, NJ senator@torricelli.senate.gov
Max Cleland, GA senator_cleland@exchange.senate.gov
Thomas Carper, DE webform@carper.senate.gov
Jean Carnahan, MO senator.carnahan@carnahan.senate.gov

The phone # for the Dems' comm. Staffer is 202-224-2627, Fax #202-224-9682

More committee contact info (addresses and phone #):
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/commpage.cgi?committee=sgov
http://www.failureisimpossible.com/contactcongress/committees/sen_govtaffairs.htm

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Roses Prichard is a history buff with a Ph.D. in communication from the Univ. of Southern California who records and produces unabridged audiobooks. Her recordings of To Kill A Mockingbird and Charming Billy have won AudioFile's Earphones Awards. "Though I don't have a law degree," she explains, "I've 'read law' with Atticus Finch, having recorded Harper Lee's masterpiece twice for different companies."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-reviews/157270036X/qid%3D931912405/sr%3D1-14/103-0310474-9070209

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(1) "Bush Taps Allbaugh To Head FEMA," by Scott Lindlaw. AP. The New York Times. 1-04-01.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Allbaugh-Profile.html

(2) "It's His Funeral," by Robert Bryce. "Naked City." The Austin Chronicle. 10-27-00.
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-10-27/pols_naked6.html

"Inconsistency raised in case," by George Kuempel. The Dallas Morning News. 10-24-00.
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/198393_funeral_24tex..html

"Surprise Testimony in Texas, " Newsweek-on-line. MSNBC.com 10-30-00.

"Fear and Loathing in Austin," by Robert Bryce. The Austin Chronicle. 11-10-00.
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-11-10/pols_roundup2.html

"The funeral scandal time line," by Robert Bryce. Salon Magazine. 8-20-99.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/08/20/timeline/index.html

(3) "Experts say Bush should settle whistle-blower suit," by Richard Alm and Mark Curriden.

The Dallas Morning News. 8-26-99.
http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bush_campaign/controversies/0826bush2funeral.htm

"Bush named a defendant in whistle-blower suit," by Jim Vertuno. AP Austin Amer.-Statesman. 4-18-00.
http://austin360.com/news/1metro/2000/04/19bushlawsuit.html

"Bush named as defendant," by Robert Bryce. Salon Magazine. 4-18-2000.
http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/04/18/bush/print.html

"Bush named a defendant in Texas wrongful-termination lawsuit," Nandotimes.com 4-18-2000.
http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500194336-500264474-501373779-0,00.html
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2001-01-26/pols_naked5.html

"The Lawsuit That Wouldn't Die," by Robert Bryce. The Austin Chronicle. 1-26-01.
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2001-01-26/pols_naked5.html (4)

"Funeralgate Hits Texas," by Robert Bryce. The Austin Chronicle. 7-9-99.
http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issues45/pols.scci.html

"The Plot Thickens," by Robert Bryce. The Austin Chronicle. 5-5-2000.
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-05-05/pols_feature5.html

"The Funeral-Home Flap," by Michael Isikoff. Newsweek, Aug. 16, 1999.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/479524.asp [mysteriously removed on 2/9/01]
http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1328 [temporarily posted]

(5) "The Funeral-Home Flap," by Michael Isikoff. Newsweek, Aug. 16, 1999.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/479524.asp [mysteriously removed on 2/9/01]
http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1328 [temporarily posted]