Cheney's secrets
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
1/29/2002
THE ENRON SCANDAL has cast into sharp relief the Bush
administration's secret list of private-sector officials who
spoke with its energy task force last year. Until now, the list's
biggest source of embarrassment had been expected to be the
absence of representatives from consumer or environmental
organizations. The task force produced a policy that had the
fingerprints of the oil, coal, power, and nuclear industries all
over it, including a plan to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
By claiming a right to confidentiality and stonewalling all
efforts to learn the names of the industry honchos who offered
their advice, the task force chairman, Vice President Dick
Cheney, has been able to keep this one-sidedness from
becoming public. But any chance the administration could
brush aside challenges to its effort to leave the country in the
dark collapsed along with one of the biggest players at the
table, the bankrupt energy broker Enron.
Last Friday, Congress's chief investigator said he was hopeful
the administration would agree in the next several days to
supply the information he had requested. If not, Comptroller
General David Walker, who served in both the Reagan and first
Bush administrations, said he would consider taking the
administration to court. Walker, who heads the nonpartisan
General Accounting Office, should do that immediately.
A factor in his hesitation might be that the GAO has never
before taken a federal entity or official to court. A previous
close call was in 1993, when First Lady Hillary Clinton tried to
hide the roster of those advising her on health insurance
reform. After much grousing, she provided the information.
That was a public relations disaster for the Clinton
administration, and Cheney's stance is turning into a public
relations disaster for President Bush, who got more campaign
money from Enron's former chairman, Kenneth Lay, than any
other contributor. California Representative Henry Waxman, a
member of one of the congressional committees investigating
Enron, said there are 17 recommendations in the Bush energy
report that were influenced by Enron. A New York Times poll
released over the weekend indicated that a majority of the
public believes that the administration is either lying or hiding
something about Enron.
On Sunday, Cheney said Walker had decided in August to
back off in his quest for the information and is pursuing it now
because of the Enron connection and pressure from
congressional Democrats. Walker called Cheney's remark
''absolutely false'' and said he was prepared to sue in
September but delayed action until after the Sept. 11 crisis
had abated. Cheney should stop impugning Walker's motives
and hand over the list of who had the administration's
attention when it put together its ''made in Houston'' energy
policy.
This story ran on page A10 of the Boston Globe on 1/29/2002.
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