High Noon On Wall Street

It will be just before noon when President Bush arrives in New York's financial district today to give a speech in which he's expected to call for reforms inspired by the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

But it may feel like high noon to some of the accountants, securities professionals, CEOs and other executives who the president is expected to take to task for either flat-out lying on corporate balance sheets - or looking the other way when someone else engages in illegal "creative accounting."

In his speech, Mr. Bush is expected to lay out a plan for tough new punishments, including jail time, for business leaders who knowingly issue false financial statements.

At a White House news conference yesterday, President Bush gave a preview of today's address on the crisis in corporate boardrooms and denounced criticism of his own past business practices as "old-style politics."

"We'll vigorously pursue people who break the law and I think that will help restore confidence to the American people," Mr. Bush told reporters Monday afternoon.

"By far the vast majority of CEOs in America are good, honest people," Mr. Bush said. "It's the few who have created the stains that we must deal with."

Mr. Bush spoke as former top executives of WorldCom invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination rather than answer questions on Capitol Hill about a $4 billion hole in the company's books.

Both the president and Vice President Dick Cheney are former business executives and have been touched personally by the controversy over corporate ethics.

In the case of the president, White House officials have sought in recent days to answer questions about Mr. Bush's tardy reporting of stock sales in Harken Energy Corp., a Texas oil company where he served as a director before entering politics.

Cheney served as chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton Co. before becoming vice president. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into accounting methods the oil field services giant adopted in 1998 for reporting cost overruns on construction jobs.

Asked about the Harken case, Mr. Bush said he saw "old-style politics" in the allegations against him.

"People are going to attack me based on Harken," he said. "That's nothing new. ... This is recycled stuff," he said.

"This was fully looked into by the SEC and there's no there there," he said.

Mr. Bush told reporters that the Harken case was a "complex transaction."

CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports the president was also peppered with questions about his actions more than a decade ago as a director of Harken, when the company was caught using improper accounting practices to mask millions of dollars in losses.

Referring to the Harken accounting incident, Mr. Bush at one point said: "In the corporate world, sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures."

President Bush wasted no time making his point about being serious about accounting reform.

"I'm a believer in the free enterprise system," said Mr. Bush. "But I'm also a strong believer in holding people accountable when they betray the trust of employees and shareholders."

The president also gave a vote of confidence to the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Harvey Pitt has been fast to act," Mr. Bush said of a man who some Democrats, as well as Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, say should be replaced as chief corporate enforcement officer for the government.

In prepared remarks at the opening of his news conference, the president urged congressional action to provide funding for the military campaign against terrorism and for security at America's airports.

"Further delays are intolerable. Congress must act," said Mr. Bush as lawmakers returned to the Capitol from a July Fourth break.

He also called on Congress to pass key items of his legislative agenda, including a measure to enhance his ability to reach global trade deals, create a new Department of Homeland Security and enact welfare laws.

"The agenda is full, the time is short and the nation is watching," the president said.