Cheney refuses to release energy plan documents to Enron investigators GAO may bring rare lawsuit over refusal
By KAREN MASTERSON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- In the face of political pressure to comply with congressional investigators, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday he will not release internal documents connected to the development of President Bush's energy plan.
That refusal is expected to fuel political outcries that the administration is hiding information about its relationship with Enron Corp., and may prompt the General Accounting Office -- Congress' nonpartisan investigative arm -- to file a rare lawsuit against the White House.
Cheney, who was asked on Sunday-morning news programs to defend his position, said White House attorneys looked into the matter and concluded that documents gathered by the task force he headed are protected by the rules of executive privilege. The GAO contends that U.S. taxpayers paid for the task force and have a right to the information.
The GAO's jurisdiction "extends to agencies created by statute. That's not me," Cheney said on Fox News Sunday. "I'm a constitutional officer. The authority of the GAO does not extend in that case to my office."
Cheney showed no sign of compromising on the issue, and indicated he was unmoved by recent polls that showed a majority of Americans distrust the administration's relationship with Enron.
Bush's comprehensive energy plan, released in May and subsequently passed by the Republican-controlled House, calls for more oil and gas drilling, particularly in the Alaskan wilderness, and a revival of the nuclear power industry.
Democrats have since charged that the policies promoted in the plan were a payoff to industry executives, including Enron's, who had given generously to Bush's 2000 election campaign. For months, Democrats have demanded more details on who attended the meetings where the plan was forged and what was said.
The collapse of Enron has complicated the administration's refusal to comply, and given Democrats a second opportunity to draw attention to those meetings.
"The General Accounting Office is on solid ground in demanding that these records be turned over," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. "The American people have a right to know what the facts are."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., speaking on CNN's Late Edition, said Cheney's most recent refusal to cooperate "raises more suspicions" and suggests the White House may be hiding something. Lieberman chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is investigating certain aspects of the Enron debacle.
Cheney, who was put on the defensive on two nationally televised programs, said the White House has nothing to hide. Rather, he said that by rebuffing the GAO's threat of legal action, the White House hopes to preserve the power of the presidency.
On ABC's This Week, Cheney said that giving in to the GAO would put "a chill over the ability of the president and vice president to receive unvarnished advice. ... It would make it virtually impossible for me to have confidential conversations with anybody."
But one Republican said the appearance of impropriety would grow as a consequence of not cooperating.
"Unfortunately, as a result of Richard Nixon years ago, when anybody hears the term `executive privilege,' they assume something bad was going on," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "There's no evidence anything bad was going on here; there's not a scintilla of evidence that the administration was doing Enron's bidding."
But polls suggest the public doesn't need a causal link between campaign contributions and pro-Enron policies to distrust the process. In a newly released New York Times/CBS poll, a majority of those surveyed said they see Republicans as far more enmeshed in Enron's problems than Democrats.
Only 17 percent of those polled said they thought the Bush administration was telling the truth; 58 percent said the administration was mostly telling the truth but hiding something, and 9 percent said officials were lying.
In December, Enron, once ranked No. 7 on the Fortune 500 big businesses list, filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The company's collapse devastated retirement accounts, eliminated thousands of jobs and raised questions about Bush's close ties to the company and its former head, Ken Lay.
And it gave Democrats an issue they hope to use against Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
"The issue is not what they took, but what did Enron get," Terry McAuliffe, Democratic Party chairman, said on Late Edition. "It seems clear that what they got is an energy policy, 17 different specific proposals that helped Enron."
McAuliffe was referring to a report issued by the head Democrat on the House Governmental Reform Committee, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, that suggested Enron's influence was evident in 17 measures included in the Bush policies.
But Republicans have called the document a partisan attempt to create a scandal that does not exist. GOP leaders indicated Sunday that they will continue to deflect any hint of scandal by emphasizing that the criminal and congressional investigations of Enron are not yet complete.
"The bottom line is, the president wants to understand all of the facts just as much as anyone else does," Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, Republican Party chairman, said on Late Edition. "The administration does, and clearly Congress does. And I think that is what we ought to be focusing on." |
