Enron is not Bush's Whitewater Commentary: It will be worse
" And Lay, who donated $100,000 to the Bush inaugural, remains mired in a
controversy about whether a curious phone conversation he had with Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission head Curtis Hebert last May had anything to do
with Hebert's replacement by Bush last summer with the head of the Texas
Public Utility Commission."
By David Callaway, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:10 AM ET Jan. 10, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The Enron debacle won't be President
Bush's Whitewater. It will be much worse.
Unlike the financial sideshow over a
20-year-old failed land deal that
dogged the Clinton administration,
the collapse of the nation's largest
energy trader into the nation's largest
bankruptcy last month is set to go
straight to the heart of exposing what
is wrong with the way the Bush
administration is conducting itself
these days.
Once a buyer for Enron's (ENE:
news, chart, profile) energy-trading
business is announced Thursday in
New York, this story is going to shift
in dramatic fashion to Washington,
D.C., where there are already eight
separate congressional probes into
the collapse, one Justice Department
investigation and scores of
unanswered questions. Many of them
concern the White House.
No smoking gun
Don't expect to see either Bush or Vice President Cheney directly linked to the
financial shenanigans that brought Enron down. They won't be. This is not about
finding a smoking gun, as much as some Democrats might wish it were.
What it is about, and what the public will get to hear and read about in
wrenching detail over the coming months, is how business gets done down in
Texas. How a small group of business leaders exert enormous clout over Bush
and his team in getting the rules changed to their benefit.
It will explain why Bush has locked up presidential records, locked out any
voices opposed to his pro-business agenda and rammed through an expensive
economic plan that wiped out the budget surplus but to date hasn't had any
positive effect on the economy.
It will explain what influence Enron Chief Executive Ken Lay and his advisers had
with Cheney and his energy task force when they met six times last year while
the vice president was putting together the administration's energy policy.
And it will explain why Bush is now thinking about acting on a proposal from that
very task force that seeks to roll back a key provision of the Clean Air Act that
helps keep factory pollution down by requiring new controls when old plants are
upgraded.
A history of seeking favor
Business leaders have always sought favors from politicians. That's nothing new.
But in the case of Enron and Lay, a night in the Lincoln Bedroom was never
going to be enough.
Enron cultivated Bush from the time he first decided to run for governor of Texas,
with executives donating a total of $623,000 to his two gubernatorial campaigns
and presidential campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The company played a major role in Bush's decision to deregulate the Texas
energy markets in 1999. Enron executives played a major role in Cheney's
energy task force last year, meeting with the vice president's staff right up until a
week before the company's stunning October announcement that it was slashing
shareholder equity by $1.2 billion to cover losses in its off-balance-sheet
partnerships.
And Lay, who donated $100,000 to the Bush inaugural, remains mired in a
controversy about whether a curious phone conversation he had with Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission head Curtis Hebert last May had anything to do
with Hebert's replacement by Bush last summer with the head of the Texas
Public Utility Commission.
This is just the beginning of what is going to come out once investigators do a
little more digging, and once Lay and his minions are required to testify before
Congress. Expect a steady diet of revelations about the extent of the energy
giant's influence -- at the state, federal and even international levels.
Enron won't bring down Bush. He remains enormously popular for his handling of
the war and the rebuilding of the country's psyche after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. But it will be a major thorn in his side through the rest of this
presidential term, and it might even play a role in the next election, depending on
what comes out.
Enron, the company, will soon be gone. But Enron, the symbol of how big
business and big politics sometimes conspire to fix the game, is just starting to
dawn on the national consciousness.
It's an ugly story. One that explains a lot about what's going on in our nation's
capital right now. And it's only just beginning.
David Callaway is executive editor of CBS.MarketWatch.com.
cbs.marketwatch.com. |
