Jamie Houghton and the Clintonites
The Times runs
a fascinating piece about the close relationship between Corning Inc. and its chairman, Jamie Houghton, and New York senator Hillary Clinton.
You will remember that Jamie Houghton is also, of course, the senior fellow on the Harvard Corporation.
Mrs. Clinton has apparently been invaluable to Corning, using her access with President Bush and foreign governments to push for aid to Corning.
And in return, Corning has been generous to Senator Clinton, becoming one of her largest sources of campaign contributions. (And giving her approximately ten times as much as her Democratic colleague, NY senator Chuck Schumer.)
Jamie Houghton also held a fundraiser for Clinton at his home that collected "tens of thousands of dollars" for her reelection (i.e., presidential) campaign.
This is not only interesting for Harvardians, it may be relevant. Many opponents of Larry Summers think that Jamie Houghton was slow to hear and respond to their concerns, and stood by Summers rather longer than he should have. Could the fact that Summers was a Clinton loyalist, and Jamie Houghton now very much needs Mrs. Clinton, have anything to do with his reluctance to act in the Summers matter? What about the fact that Summers-loyalist Bob Rubin was also on the board, and Bob Rubin, who also has a very close relationship with the Clintons, could also be valuable to Houghton's work with Corning?
In other words, was Jamie Houghton using his position on the Harvard Corporation to help his company?
I have no evidence of any of this, I hasten to add; I'm just thinking out loud. (Well, out blog.)
The point is twofold. One, you have to consider the possibility of such corruption behind the veils of the Corporation's secrecy. It could happen...but because the Corporation is so secretive, we'd never know about it. A good argument against the secrecy of the Corporation, especially as the university becomes increasingly enmeshed witt the worlds of business and politics. Any time powerful and wealthy people get behind closed doors and start making decisions that they never tell anyone about,
a good American gets nervous.
And two, this potential conflict of interest is an unintended consequence of hiring a president from the world of politics. The political relationships Larry Summers brought to Harvard could be exploited by, say, members of the Corporation in ways that have nothing to do with Harvard's best interests....
