Why Does Walt Minnick Lie, Again?

Congressman Walt Minnick is often touting his business experience as making him uniquely qualified to represent Idaho's 1st District.  Just last week at a Meridian Chamber of Commerce forum, Minnick said that "his centrist record and 30 years of business experience put him in the best spot to help restore America’s financial health."

So with all of Walt's business experience, why does he feel the need to lie about it?

On his campaign website biography, Minnick lists his 16-year tenure as President of TJ International as an example of his "proven leadership."  He also claims that under his tenure, the company "never failed to make money."

Trouble is, company documents show otherwise.

In a  press release dated February 14, 1992, TJ International announced the first annual loss in the company history.

Why Minnick would say that the company never lost money under his tenure is unclear when the facts obviously say otherwise.

Minnick's tenure at Trus Joist is a story unto itself, but here is a brief history. 

After leaving the Nixon White House in 1974 amid the ongoing scandal of Watergate, Minnick struggled for six months to find a job.  In a letter obtained by Freedom of Information Act request dated December 17, 1974, he told Watergate Special Prosecutors,

In looking for a job last winter and spring, a number of prospective employers were hesitant to "take a chance" on me because I was one of those "out of work lawyers from the Nixon White House."  The chairman of the Board of Amfac Corporation expressed a similar view when it was suggested that I might be an appropriate candidate for their Board of Directors.

This was in sharp contrast to the success of Hank Paulson, Walt's good friend and fellow Harvard Business School alum with whom he worked at the Pentagon and the Nixon White House.  Hank was not only "well connected enough to get the job [as assistant to John Ehrlichman, Nixon's chief domestic advisor], but well connected enough to resign in the thick of the Watergate scandal without ever getting caught up in the fallout."  He landed a job with the now infamous Goldman Sachs, rising through the ranks to become CEO, and the rest is history.  And it was no doubt Hank and Walt's close friendship that would later deliver a job at Goldman for Minnick's son Adam, also a Harvard MBA.

No such prestigious landing for Minnick; he finally found a job as corporate secretary at Trus Joist Corporation.  He rose to President and COO in 1979, eventually becoming CEO in 1986.

With Walt at the helm, Trus Joist launched into several diversification efforts, one "into energy management systems, which cost Trus Joist some $2.5 million over 18 months," according to the company history.  The other was into the wood window industry, acquiring Norco Windows of Wisconsin and Dashwood Industries of Canada, which would eventually be merged into the Outlook Window Partnership.

It was this diversification, as the Outlook partnership continued to drag on company profits, that would ultimately lead to Minnick's resignation from Trus Joist in 1995, amid disagreements with the board over the direction of the company.  Minnick wanted to continue diversification but the Board had other ideas.  It cost the company $40 million to divest itself of the window partnership.

Nearly everyone would want to shine the best light on the past, but as a congressman running for reelection asking voters to trust his business experience, is a man who lies about that experience (and this isn't the first) really worthy of that trust?  

Comments

[Michael McCracken]

I live in Fl. not Idaho but I used to work for Trus Joist in Valdosta, Ga. under Walt Minnick's leadership. I can tell you that Trus Joist was the best company I have ever worked for. I Spent 17 years with them and back in 1980-81 with a downturn in the economy the leadership cut their own pay 10% and DID NOT CUT any of the hourly workforce pay. That is just unheard of from companies. We were treated very much like we mattered. The first time I ever met Walt was when he came to work a day in our plant. South Ga. in the summertime was hot, hard work and he worked right along with me. I thought he was just a new employee when my supervisor introduced me to him. Walt then introduced himself and said "what do you need me to do" I had no idea that he was the president of our company until the day was over. I am not even sure that Walt was president in 1991 but regardless anyone can make a mistake, but from what I know of Walt, I wish he were my representative so I could vote for him.

[MountainGoat]

That's a fine story Michael but you've got your facts wrong. During the early '80s downturn, wage reductions for 876 Trus Joist employees ranged from 2 to 10 percent; employees earning more than $1,700 per month received a 5 percent cut. Here's a link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MXERAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R-IDAAAAIBAJ&dq=minnick%20trus%20joist&pg=4400,6224967

Also in the 1985 downturn Trus Joist implemented a cost-reduction program that included "elimination of jobs, postponement of salary increases and reduction of benefits." Here's the link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g-gOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CYQDAAAAIBAJ&dq=minnick%20trus%20joist&pg=5120,6016422

And yes, as the post indicates, Walt became president of TJ in 1979 and CEO in 1986 through his resignation in 1995. Anyone can make a mistake but this is a man with a pattern of embellishing and exaggerating his past who is campaigning on his business expertise and this is his own biography. It takes a special level of incompetence to make a "mistake" about what the company did under one's tenure.

And the campaign biography isn't the only place where this misinformation occurs. He repeats this lie at his LinkedIn page saying, "The $700 million Idaho-headquartered public company never failed to make a profit while Minnick was at the helm." Here's a link:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/walt-minnick/7/ba8/436

Like I said, it's a nice story... too bad the facts say something different.