Democrats Split on Response to Enron
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 14, 2002; Page A04
Democratic lawmakers are divided about how aggressively to investigate the White House's relationship to the implosion of Enron Corp., with an increasing number of party officials warning their colleagues against overreaching or showing too much glee in attacking a popular wartime president.
White House officials said over the weekend that they believe Democrats could provoke a severe backlash by pushing the issue too hard. These officials said they will continue to issue frequent reminders about the ties Enron had to Democrats and that they will argue that if there were regulatory failures, the crucial ones occurred under President Bill Clinton. White House officials said they will focus on protecting other workers' pensions and let Democrats look political if they steer their investigations in other directions.
The appetites of some Democrats were whetted yesterday when another White House statement about Enron turned out to have been incomplete, making Capitol Hill investigators wonder if the administration account will stand up to months of scrutiny. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said last week that he was not aware of any West Wing officials who had been told of Enron's calls to two Cabinet secretaries as the Houston-based energy trading giant headed toward bankruptcy. But Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he had alerted Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.
Inquiries are underway by at least four committees in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Several Democratic officials said that President Bush's longtime personal and financial ties to Enron provide a rich vein for investigation and that they will explore whether the administration could have done more to protect employees and shareholders.
Other Democratic officials said the information released so far suggests the White House did nothing wrong: Enron executives telephoned two Cabinet members seeking help, and none resulted. These officials said that rather than trying to prove malfeasance, party members should use the episode to illustrate their contention that Bush is cozy with wealthy moguls and treats workers with relative indifference.
"Democrats are very excited about this because this gives us a hook to bring this guy some accountability, plus there's no way it's not going to be a distraction for them," a key Democratic strategist said. "Privately, Democrats are almost unanimous in seeing this as a significant political opportunity. But we don't want to blow it."
Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.), a former investment banker, said his party's reaction should focus on substantive issues -- the regulatory structure for campaign finance, pensions and accounting -- rather than politics or process.
"People legitimately objected to the diversion of the public interest during the Republican investigations of President Clinton, and it would be a mistake on our part to get into returning the favor," Corzine said in an interview yesterday.
Jennifer Palmieri, the Democratic National Committee press secretary, said a nationwide party offensive beginning Jan. 21, which was to focus on the consequences of the return of deficits, now will also seek to popularize the term "Enronomics" as a critique of Bush's tax and budget policies.
"He cooks the books, uses rosy economic scenarios and doesn't worry enough about the human side of the ledger," Palmieri said. "It was so hard to explain before. Now you can explain it."
White House officials contend that the public has no appetite for a drawn-out scandal fed by camera-hungry lawmakers. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform, has been writing letters to the White House for seven months seeking information about Enron's influence over the energy policy developed by Vice President Cheney.
"Waxman risks transforming himself into the Dan Burton of the Democrats," a senior administration official said, referring to the House Republican from Indiana who championed many Clinton-era investigations from his post as chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, where he remains.
Jim Wilkinson, a White House communications official, described the Democratic response to Enron as "the clinical definition of panic."
Some veterans of the Clinton investigations said Bush officials have no idea what they're in for when Congress starts asking for every memo, e-mail, page, phone log and building-entry record. The former Clinton officials said they were surprised that White House officials say they do not intend to compile a list of administration contacts with Enron, even for their own use. A senior administration official said the White House "will fully cooperate with all requests that are relevant and specific," but will condemn broad requests as a fishing expedition.
Joe Lockhart, former press secretary to Clinton and now a partner in the Glover Park Group, warned Republicans that a lesson of Whitewater is that Washington scandals have their own momentum.
"The facts can almost take on a secondary role in these things," Lockhart said. "For better or worse, this will not ultimately rest on whether someone can prove that someone did something wrong."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
