ENE hits hot list for journalists today...
ENRON: Lay Low
Enron CEO Kenneth Lay's atty Robert Bennett said Lay "will not attend" 12/18 Senate Commerce Cmte hearing on the
downfall of Enron. Bennett said Lay may go before the cmte in the future, "but not on Tuesday": "Mr. Lay is cooperating with the
committee." Lay was invited last week along with an executive from the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, an Enron shareholder, a
union lawyer, a law professor and others. Lay also declined to appear at a House Financial Services Cmte hearing on 12/12
(Reuters, 12/17).
Sudden Loneliness?
Until recently, Lay "was a fixture in Washington." Now, Lay "is finding out how cold and lonely Washington can turn." As
investigations gear up, the WH "appears to be doing little to come to the aid of Bush's old friend." Instead, the admin "is trying to
avoid any appearance that Lay or Enron are getting special treatment." WH officials "have been encouraged to minimize contact"
with the SEC, "even on unrelated issues," according to one GOP lobbyist. Meanwhile, some lawmakers are sending Enron political
donations back -- the NRSC said 12/14 that it is returning a $100K contribution. Rep. Ken Bentsen (D-TX), on Lay: "His star has
certainly fallen." Enron's "relentless pursuit of political influence" could make its fall the "most explosive financial scandal in
Washington since the collapse" of Charles Keating and the savings and loan empire more than a decade ago. Rep. Billy Tauzin's
(R-LA) spokesperson Ken Johnson: "We're going to take this investigation wherever the facts lead us. ... We're not going to shill for
anyone, and we're not going to shield anyone." At the moment, two factors "may be limiting the situation's immediate political
fallout." One is Afghanistan. The other "is a lack of evidence that federal regulators were influenced by Enron's ties" to the WH. But
Dems "already are urging Congress to explore the full range of Enron contacts" with the admin. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-LA): "I'm
afraid the Bush administration would like to downplay its intimate relationship with Ken Lay and Enron executives"
(Brownstein/Simon/Sanders, Los Angeles Times, 12/15).
And:
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 17, 2001; Page C01
All the elements were there: An early-morning police raid on O.J. Simpson's house. A drug-smuggling and money-laundering
investigation. The Juice in a white bathrobe instead of a white Bronco. News copters hovering overhead.
But the media world yawned. The cable networks didn't go live. The man at the center of the greatest murder-trial frenzy of the 20th
century was reduced to a mere blip.
The war, as you may have noticed, so dominates the media atmosphere that few other news-bearing missiles can get through.
Reporters from other beats have been drafted for war duty. The Afghanistan-anthrax axis has overshadowed, diminished or just plain
blotted out stories that otherwise would have been huge.
In the case of Simpson, that's probably a good thing. But imagine the kind of media scrutiny the Enron meltdown would be drawing if
all were calm overseas.
It is, after all, the biggest corporate collapse ever. Such top officials as economic adviser Larry Lindsey and the incoming Republican
National Committee chairman, ex-Montana governor Marc Racicot, did work for Enron, while White House strategist Karl Rove
owned as much as $250,000 in Enron stock. CEO Kenneth Lay is a close friend of President Bush and met with Dick Cheney while
the vice president was formulating energy policy. Lay and top company executives have donated almost $2 million to Bush in the
last eight years.
"Enron is Whitewater in spades. . . . It has the makings of the greatest presidential scandal since the Teapot Dome," writes Los
Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer.
To be sure, Enron has been aggressively covered as a business story, including cover treatment in Fortune and Business Week.
But it hasn't drawn the kind of daily-drumbeat political treatment and chat-show debate that often surrounds corporate chicanery with
a whiff of scandal. |
