The United States economy is in free fall. Millions of Americans are losing their homes through foreclosure. Even more Americans find themselves owing more on their home than it is worth. Americans have lost millions of dollars in their retirement and pension accounts. There are allegations that some major corporations have perpetrated massive fraud in the sub-prime mortgage market. In this environment the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its infinite wisdom has charged, Mark Cuban with insider stock trading which netted him $750,000.

Cuban is No Angel

Cuban the flamboyant owner of the NBA’s Dallas Maverick , has denied any wrongdoing and believes that the SEC enforcement staff was determined to get him without regard to the facts. Cuban has transformed the Dallas Mavericks from a perennial NBA loser to one of the league’s most successful teams.

He is beloved by players and fans because he seems to be a devoted fan himself. He sits near the team at court side and often travels to away games with the team. He can be heard throughout arenas challenging what he be believes to be bad calls by officials. NBA commissioner, David Stern, has fined Cuban many times for the verbal attacks on officials.

Maybe McCain Was Correct

During his unsuccessful campaign for President, Senator John McCain once said that if he were to become President, he would fire SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. The media ridiculed McCain for this statement, because the President cannot fire the SEC chair. The Obama campaign used McCain’s attack on Cox as a further indication that the Arizona Senator was out of touch in understanding the American economy.

While it is too early to determine Cuban’s culpability in this matter, there are some facts that make this charge against Cuban a bit suspect. First, the insider trade that Cuban supposedly made happened in 2004. Second, the company, Mamma.Com that Cuban traded has a rather checkered history. In 2006, Mamma.Com settled a shareholder lawsuit for 3.5 million dollars regarding its ties to a shady stock promoter. Finally, there is a record of some inappropriate behavior by one of the SEC’s enforcement attorneys toward one of Cuban’s other business ventures. The attorney is now being reviewed for possible disciplinary action.

The SEC Majors in Minors

Whether Cuban did, what the SEC alleges is not the point of concern here. The question is why is the SEC involved in a case that is four years old for a relatively small amount of money involving a company with a questionable past? Given the nature of the current financial crisis, is this the best use of the SEC’s time and resources? New York Attorney General Cuomo has been out front investigating possible corporate wrongdoing involving billions of dollars. Where is the SEC on these major issues?

Phillip Fulmer

Seventeen years ago, I sat in a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee where officials of the University of Tennessee announced that head football coach Johnny Majors had resigned and was being replaced by offensive coordinator Phillip Fulmer. Last Monday November 3, 2008,
University of Tennessee officials held a press conference in Knoxville, Tennessee to announce that this would be head football coach Phillip Fulmer’s final year.

In seventeen years at Tennessee, Fulmer won almost 75% of his games and won a national championship in the 1999. In order to fire Fulmer the University will have to pay him more than six million dollars. In addition, the University will have to pay all of Fulmer’s assistant coaches’ salary for a year or two if they are not retained by the new University of Tennessee head coach. So firing Fulmer is a multi-million dollar act on the part of the University.

McCain’s Navy

Almost twenty-five years ago, I attended a luncheon at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona where a first term United States Senator named John McCain spoke to a group of the city’s African American leaders. McCain assured the group that he was everybody’s senator and vowed to work closely with the small African American population in the state of Arizona.

As a show of his commitment, the senator came with a group of people he called “McCain’s Navy”. These were mostly white professionals who volunteered their services to help improve the lives of a variety of individuals and groups in Arizona. McCain also had syndicated columnist George Will with him. Later, Will, an avowed conservative, wrote a very positive column, which suggested that McCain was a new breed of legislator. More recently, in his columns, Will has been a constant and severe critic of McCain.

On Wednesday November 4, 2008, McCain lost his bid to become the President of the United Sates to Barack Obama, an African American.

‘From Winning to Losing

Both Fulmer and McCain have distinguished careers. Fulmer is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football. Fulmer is an affable fellow who is revered by his former players. He is a former Tennessee offensive lineman who is very large man. Having participated in golf tournaments where Fulmer was a celebrity participant, I can attest to Fulmer being “a hail fellow well met”.

Despite his past success, the University of Tennessee was willing to part with millions of dollars in order to fire Fulmer. Fulmer had a losing record this season and seemed to be unable to compete with some of the newer and more successful coaches in the Southeastern Conference (S.E.C.). Alabama coach Nick Saban has turned Southern football on its ear .In the week when Fulmer was fired, Saban’s Alabama team was voted the number one team in all of college football.

Fulmer also suffers in comparison to other S.E.C. coaches such as Georgia’s Mark Richt and Florida’s Urban Meyer. The newer S.E.C. coaches are more youthful, more media savvy and have installed offenses that are more dynamic and have become fan favorites. Fulmer’s perennial nemesis South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier was quick to “stick the needle” in after embarrassing the Tennessee Volunteers on the field a few days before Fulmer’s firing.

The New Guy Wins

Like Fulmer, Senator McCain has a distinguished and successful career. A genuine war hero who was imprisoned and tortured by the North Vietnamese, McCain has been a legislative leader. He can point to a number of significant achievements in service in the U.S. Senate. His major strength as retired a Navy officer was national security. When the focus of the election shifted to the economy, McCain was out of his element and seemed never able to gain his footing. Consequently, his campaign became tactical rather than strategic. McCain was short in what George Bush 41 called the “vision thing”.

McCain’s opponent, Senator Obama, is forty-seven years old while McCain is seventy-two. Obama bounds up stairs and glides across stages while McCain has a halting gait in part due to old war injuries. With the overwhelming number of Americans believing that America is on the wrong track, McCain suffered when compared to Obama’s inspirational oratory an seeming unflappability.

For both Fulmer and McCain their past successes are laudable, but the future has been ceded to a new generation of leaders.