Enron: A Democrat Scandal, Time Says
Scandal-ridden Enron had a lot closer ties to the Clinton administration than Democrats slavering over a chance to tie the company to the Bush administration care to admit.
According to Time magazine in an expose "Enron's Democrat Pals," documents obtained by the magazine show that Enron was a heck of a lot closer to the Clinton mob that was previously known.
The magazine, no fan of George W., alleges that prior to its "messy decline and fall, Enron had plenty of clout in George W. Bush's Washington," but fails to note that the "clout" did Enron absolutely no good when the company tried to put the arm on the Bush administration which refused to lift as much as a finger in Enron's behalf.
Citing Enron's "alleged influence on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force," Time says that "Enron's cozy relationship with Washington" had roots far deeper than any of the alleged ties to Cheney.
"Documents obtained by TIME show the energy giant enjoyed much closer ties with Clinton Administration regulators than was generally known," the magazine reported.
Before Cheney's energy task force met with Enron officials and allegedly included their ideas in Bush's energy plan, Clinton's energy team was busy doing exactly what Cheney has been charged with doing. The Clinton administration was putting together a 1995 plan to speed up cash flow and encourage credit for the energy industry, they sought Enron's advice - and heeded it. Time says Secretary Bill White wrote an Enron official. that the staff was ordered to "rework the proposal to take into account the specific comments and suggestions you made," The Clinton people also weighed in on Enron's efforts to attract business from abroad, Time reveals, recalling that Hazel O'Leary, Clinton's Energy Secretary took Enron bigwigs along on trade missions to India, China, Pakistan and South Africa.
Coming home after a trip to Mexico Deputy Energy Secretary White wrote to Enron chairman Ken Lay that "much opportunity" existed there for natural gas. White then sent Lay a copy of Mexico's energy plans. To persuade an Enron senior vice president to join a mission to Pakistan, White wrote, "I have strong personal relationships with the existing government."
Enron, Time reported, "showed its gratitude. At Christmas 1995, documents show, it donated an unknown sum of cash in O'Leary's name to a charity called "I Have a Dream." And when Clinton ran for re-election a year later, the company made its largest single contribution ever - $100,000 -to the Democrats.
Time's Michael Weisskopf neglected to report the voluminous evidence of Democrats and Clinton administration's cozy relationships with Enron.
According to columnist Robert Novak, "a bipartisan Senate Finance Committee investigation has found that Enron Corp., no paragon of free-market deregulation, gorged itself on corporate welfare. The Clinton administration gave more than $650 million in Export-Import Bank loans to Enron-related companies."
As NewsMax.com reported last Jan. 17, 2002 "Enron Corp., cited by Democrats as a big giver to President Bush and the GOP, gave a cool $420,000 to Democrats when the corporation was desperate to get the Clinton administration's help in having the potentially disastrous Kyoto treaty made the law of the land."
From 1990 to 1994 Enron gave 42% of their donations to the Democrats according to The Center for Responsive Politics
3. -Lloyd Bensten, Clinton's first treasury secretary, was a recipient of Enron's money. At the time of his campaign for Senate, he received the second largest donation from Enron the Center for Responsive Politics reported
Clinton officials publicly helped Enron win a contract in India as well as in Indonesia. Enron had received U.S. government funds to build power plants in China, the Philippines and Turkey. Enron also won contracts in Pakistan and Russia while accompanying senior U.S. government officials on state trips. In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's project, Lay's company gave $100,000 to the DNC, according to Time.
Enron got permission to build a pipeline from Mozambique to South Africa after Clinton National Security Adviser Anthony Lake threatened to withhold aid to Mozambique if it didn't approve the project, according to the Mozambique News Agency
Enron donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant, The Weekly Standard reported
Joe Lieberman's and Tom Daschle's largest contributor in the 2000 election cycle was Enron's Largest Creditor, Citigroup according to the Center for Responsive Politics
Former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards appointed Ken Lay ,the Enron exec, to the Governor's Business Council and received contributions from Enron the Washington Post reported.
Enron contributed some $682,000 to the DNC during the 2000 election says the Center for Responsive Politics
Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) is the congressman who received the most money from Enron in the past 12 years. He got $42,750. The second largest receiver was Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) who received $38,000 according to the Center for Responsive Politics
71 House Democrats received $257,140 Enron Contributions reported the Center for Responsive Politics
And that's just a small part of the Enron-Democrat-Clinton connection Time managed to overlook. |
