Having a COW: The Bush family's lobbying business

Today's Los Angeles Times has a fascinating report on Neil Bush's educational software company, Ignite! Learning. But a close reading indicates that the headline, "Bush's family profits from 'No Child' act," misses the real scandal.

The page-one story says the company founded by the president's brother, and owned partly by his parents, has placed its Curriculum on Wheels (COW for short) product in forty U.S. school districts. The paper reports that at least thirteen districts have used federal funds from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to purchase the program. The "portable learning centers," which resemble big purple cows on wheels, cost $3,800 apiece.

That's not the scandal.

The scandal is tipped off by the list of outrageously wealthy foreigners, in businesses totally unrelated to education, who "invested" in Ignite! Learning or made grants and gifts to U.S. school districts with the stipulation that the money be used to buy Ignite! Learning products.

Neil Bush founded Ignite! Learning in 1999 when his brother was governor of Texas and a strong favorite to win the Republican nomination for president. The Times reports that by 2003, according to SEC records, "Neil Bush had raised about $23 million from more than a dozen outside investors, including Mohammed Al Saddah, the head of a Kuwaiti company, and Winston Wong, the head of a Chinese computer firm." More recent investors include "Russian fugitive business tycoon Boris A. Berezovsky and Berezovsky's partner Badri Patarkatsishvili. "

School districts in the United States received unexpected gifts from Saudi-owned Aramco Services Co., Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co., all conditioned on the districts buying Ignite! Learning's software.

And don't expect Neil Bush to rest on his laurels for the two remaining years of the Bush administration. "As our business matures in the USA we have plans to expand overseas and to work with many distinguished individuals in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa," he wrote to the Times in an e-mail, "Not one of these associates by the way has ever asked for any access to either of my political brothers, not one White House tour, not one autographed photo, and not one Lincoln bedroom overnight stay."

Look closely at that statement. "We have plans" tells you that no money has yet changed hands. "Not one of these associates . . . has ever asked" doesn't tell you that they won't, or that they'll have to.

So what's going on here?

The facts reported by the Times support an interpretation that Ignite! Learning is a conduit for payments to Neil Bush, and perhaps to former president Bush and his wife Barbara, for some sort of lobbying services.

After all, if Shell Oil and Aramco and a dozen cash-rich international businessmen want to support schools in the United States, they don't need Neil Bush to do it. They could donate directly or to any of the foundations that support education.

And if they're looking for a profitable investment vehicle, it's a passing strange coincidence that this collection of characters would randomly hook up in a tiny Texas software firm that puts purple cows in grade-school classrooms.

So, is Ignite! Learning a perfectly legitimate Texas business?

Or is it a clever way for foreign governments and businesses to pay the Bush family for lobbying and consulting services without the ugliness of the president's relatives registering as foreign lobbyists?

We can make an educated guess.


Copyright 2006

Editor's Note: You might be interested to read the earlier posts, "The Bush family's Dubai Connections" and "The president's motive in the ports deal."

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