Bert Lance
Encyclopedia
Thomas Bertram Lance (born June 3, 1931) is an American
businessman, who was Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter. He is known mainly for his resignation from President
Jimmy Carter
's administration due to scandal in 1977.
and has lived in Gordon County (Calhoun), Georgia. His father, Thomas Jackson Lance, had served as president of Young Harris College. In 1941, the family relocated to Calhoun in Gordon County when Lance's father became superintendent of the Calhoun schools. Lance graduated from the University of Georgia in 1951 and was also initiated into the Sigma Chi
fraternity at the Delta Chapter. He later did graduate studies at LSU in Baton Rouge, and at Rutgers. While attending college he married LaBelle David, whose family owned the Calhoun First National Bank. After graduation, Lance became employed by the bank as a clerk and within a decade became its president. He later served as president of National Bank of Georgia in Atlanta from 1975 to 1977.
and the eventual winner, George Busbee
. Lance accrued campaign debts of nearly $600,000, partly by manipulating loans at his bank. After Carter's victory over President Gerald Ford
, Lance was named director of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB)
. According to former OMB officials, it was well known in the department that Bert Lance and President Carter prayed together every morning.
Within six months, questions were raised by the press and Congress
about mismanagement and corruption when Lance was Chairman of the Board
of Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia. William Safire
's article written during this time, Carter's Broken Lance, later earned a Pulitzer Prize
.
This embarrassment for Carter's administration, particularly as it occurred fairly soon after the Watergate scandal
and an election victory over President Ford (Richard Nixon
's pardoner), caused Lance to resign as OMB director on September 21, 1977.
Later, after a well-publicized trial, Lance was acquitted of all charges. In 1981, Lance returned to the Calhoun First National Bank, again as Chairman. He left in 1986. He made something of a political comeback in 1982 when he was elected Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party. In 1984 Walter Mondale
sought to name Lance chairman of the Democratic National Committee
, and was Mondale's first choice for Vice President during his 1984 campaign; however, Mondale rejected the idea after it provoked criticism and instead chose Geraldine Ferraro
as his running mate. In 1988 Lance was an advisor to Jesse Jackson
during Jackson's presidential campaign.
wrote that it "has become a source of inspiration to anti-activists."
scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was involved in deals with notable BCCI luminaries Agha Hasan Abedi
, Mochtar Riady
and Ghaith Pharaon
and with BCCI's largest borrower, P. S. Prasad, and joined with Arkansas-based power investor Jackson Stephens in facilitating BCCI's takeover of Financial General Bankshares. Lance and Stephens made millions in the wake of BCCI's collapse. In January 1978, Lance sold his stock in National Bank of Georgia to Ghaith Pharaon
, while on the same day, BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi
paid off Lance's $3.5 million loan at the First National Bank of Chicago.
The following month, Lance helped BCCI with their hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares of Washington. The attempt failed, but three years later, BCCI secretly acquired the bank (renamed First American Bankshares) using 15 Arab investors as nominees.
The next year, Lance introduced Jimmy Carter
to Abedi. In 1987, First American Bankshares acquired National Bank of Georgia from Pharaon. BCCI
was terminated in 1991 and it was subsequently revealed that the bank had done many illegal activities, including secretly controlling several U.S. banks, in violation of federal banking statutes.
, soon after Lance's resignation from the Carter administration, John Belushi
(playing Lance) and Dan Aykroyd
(playing Jimmy Carter) appeared in an advertising parody of an American Express
credit card commercial.
On an episode of Good Times
, JJ referred to himself as Bert Lance, offering to make out a check for the family budget knowing they have no money.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman, who was Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter. He is known mainly for his resignation from President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
's administration due to scandal in 1977.
Early Life
Lance was born in Gainesville, GeorgiaGainesville, Georgia
-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
and has lived in Gordon County (Calhoun), Georgia. His father, Thomas Jackson Lance, had served as president of Young Harris College. In 1941, the family relocated to Calhoun in Gordon County when Lance's father became superintendent of the Calhoun schools. Lance graduated from the University of Georgia in 1951 and was also initiated into the Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is the largest and one of the oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities in North America with 244 active chapters and more than . Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon...
fraternity at the Delta Chapter. He later did graduate studies at LSU in Baton Rouge, and at Rutgers. While attending college he married LaBelle David, whose family owned the Calhoun First National Bank. After graduation, Lance became employed by the bank as a clerk and within a decade became its president. He later served as president of National Bank of Georgia in Atlanta from 1975 to 1977.
Carter administration
Lance was an adviser to Jimmy Carter during Carter's successful 1976 campaign. He had become acquainted with Carter during the latter's time as Governor of Georgia, and served as state highway director during his administration. Lance was an unsuccessful candidate to succeed Carter in 1974, losing a bid for the Democratic nomination. Lance finished third in the first primary, behind Lester MaddoxLester Maddox
Lester Garfield Maddox was an American politician who was the 75th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1967 to 1971....
and the eventual winner, George Busbee
George Busbee
George Dekle Busbee was an American politician who served as the 77th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1975 to 1983....
. Lance accrued campaign debts of nearly $600,000, partly by manipulating loans at his bank. After Carter's victory over President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, Lance was named director of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB)
United States Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States .The current OMB Director is Jacob Lew.-History:...
. According to former OMB officials, it was well known in the department that Bert Lance and President Carter prayed together every morning.
Within six months, questions were raised by the press and Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
about mismanagement and corruption when Lance was Chairman of the Board
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
of Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia. William Safire
William Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
's article written during this time, Carter's Broken Lance, later earned a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
.
This embarrassment for Carter's administration, particularly as it occurred fairly soon after the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
and an election victory over President Ford (Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's pardoner), caused Lance to resign as OMB director on September 21, 1977.
Later, after a well-publicized trial, Lance was acquitted of all charges. In 1981, Lance returned to the Calhoun First National Bank, again as Chairman. He left in 1986. He made something of a political comeback in 1982 when he was elected Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party. In 1984 Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
sought to name Lance chairman of the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
, and was Mondale's first choice for Vice President during his 1984 campaign; however, Mondale rejected the idea after it provoked criticism and instead chose Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She was the first female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party....
as his running mate. In 1988 Lance was an advisor to Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
during Jackson's presidential campaign.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Lance is credited with originating the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", when he was quoted saying it in the May 1977 issue of the magazine Nation's Business. The expression became widespread, and William SafireWilliam Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
wrote that it "has become a source of inspiration to anti-activists."
BCCI scandal
Lance was implicated in the BCCIBank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was involved in deals with notable BCCI luminaries Agha Hasan Abedi
Agha Hasan Abedi
Agha Hasan Abedi also known as Agha Sahab was a banker and philanthropist who founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in 1972...
, Mochtar Riady
Mochtar Riady
Mochtar Riady is an ethnic Chinese financial magnate in Southeast Asia. He is the founder and CEO of Lippo Group. He is also the chairman of the Asian Bankers Association. Born on 12 May 1929, in Malang, East Java, Mochtar is known to have a cold hand at transforming the fortunes of financial...
and Ghaith Pharaon
Ghaith Pharaon
Ghaith Rashad Pharaon, is a prominent Saudi businessman and financier.-Background:...
and with BCCI's largest borrower, P. S. Prasad, and joined with Arkansas-based power investor Jackson Stephens in facilitating BCCI's takeover of Financial General Bankshares. Lance and Stephens made millions in the wake of BCCI's collapse. In January 1978, Lance sold his stock in National Bank of Georgia to Ghaith Pharaon
Ghaith Pharaon
Ghaith Rashad Pharaon, is a prominent Saudi businessman and financier.-Background:...
, while on the same day, BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi
Agha Hasan Abedi
Agha Hasan Abedi also known as Agha Sahab was a banker and philanthropist who founded the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in 1972...
paid off Lance's $3.5 million loan at the First National Bank of Chicago.
The following month, Lance helped BCCI with their hostile bid for Financial General Bankshares of Washington. The attempt failed, but three years later, BCCI secretly acquired the bank (renamed First American Bankshares) using 15 Arab investors as nominees.
The next year, Lance introduced Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
to Abedi. In 1987, First American Bankshares acquired National Bank of Georgia from Pharaon. BCCI
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...
was terminated in 1991 and it was subsequently revealed that the bank had done many illegal activities, including secretly controlling several U.S. banks, in violation of federal banking statutes.
Popular references
On Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, soon after Lance's resignation from the Carter administration, John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
(playing Lance) and Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
(playing Jimmy Carter) appeared in an advertising parody of an American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
credit card commercial.
On an episode of Good Times
Good Times
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer...
, JJ referred to himself as Bert Lance, offering to make out a check for the family budget knowing they have no money.