Enron-gate: Where are the investigations of Bush's liaison with the bankrupt company
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
12.06.01, Email this item to a friend
AUSTIN -- Hail and farewell, o Enron! What a
flameout. The Establishment media, sucking its
collective thumb with unwonted solemnity, is
treating us to meditations on two themes: "How
the mighty have fallen," and, "Who would have
thunk it?" Pardon me while I snort, in lieu of ruder
noises, and offer two themes of my own: "What
took so long?" and, "Anyone with an ounce of
common sense."
If you want to know what this story is about,
pretend Bill Clinton is still president. Pretend
Clinton's long-time, all-time biggest campaign
contributor, a guy for whom Clinton has carried
water for over the years, a guy with unparalleled
"access," a shaper of policy, a man with a veto on
regulatory appointments affecting his business,
with connections at every level of the
administration, a political fixer beyond the wildest
dreams of James Riady -- imagine that this guy's
worldwide empire has tumbled into bankruptcy in
just three months amid cascading reports of lies,
monumental accounting errors, evasions, iffy
financial statements, insider deals, a board of
directors rife with conflicts of interest, top
executives bailing out with millions while regular
employees see their life savings shrink to nothing --
imagine all this back in the day of Bill Clinton.
Holy moley, we'd have four congressional
investigations, three special prosecutors, two
impeachment inquiries and a partridge in a pear
tree by now. The Republicans would all be
drumming their heels on the floor in full tantrum.
But this is not President Clinton, it is President Bush
-- so of course different standards must apply. The
fact that Ken Lay, Enron's chairman, has been
Bush's chief money man and key backer since he
first went into politics is mentioned only in passing.
The media don't want to be impolite. They have
been credulously swallowing Enron's p.r. and
overlooking the obvious for years.
The main problem with Enron is that it has never
produced much of anything in the way of either
goods or services; it has not added a single widget
to the world widget supply. Enron was in the
business of "financializing," making markets, trading
in wholesale electricity, water, data storage,
fiber-optics, just about anything. One Enron
executive told The New York Times the company's
achievement was to create "a regulatory black
hole" to suit its "core management philosophy,
which was to be the first mover into a market and
to make money in the initial chaos and lack of
transparency."
Enron started as a gas pipeline company that went
into trading natural gas, and even then the
company's critics claimed Enron was making profits
by stoking volatility in gas prices. The same charge
showed up again in spades with the newly
deregulated electricity markets. Enron had lobbied
for utility deregulation relentlessly, formidably and
very expensively at both the state and national
levels. The company seemed to spend more time
influencing government than doing business. Like
Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund
that went awry, it seemed to have only a parasitic
relationship to actual economic activity. The
problem with deregulating utilities is the reason
they were regulated in the first place -- monopoly
power and the threat of market manipulation are a
set-up for unholy price-gouging. How many times
do we have to re-learn that lesson?
Just a few spiffy eye-openers on Enron's
connections:
Lay and Enron together donated $2 million to
George W. Bush. In 2000, a company memo that
was an open strong-arm recommended employees
give campaign checks for Bush to the political
action committee: low-level managers were urged
to contribute $500 and senior executives at least
$5,000. Another $1 million was given to mostly
Republican congressional candidates. It gave more
money last cycle than any other energy company.
Lawrence B. Lindsey, Bush's top economic
adviser, got $50,000 from Enron in 2000 for
consulting, presumably giving the company the
same excellent economic advice now proving so
healthy for the nation's economy.
Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, sold
between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Enron
stock earlier this year, after being criticized for
conflict of interest.
The California Legislature passed a contempt
motion against Enron for failure to respond to a
June 11 subpoena. The legislature is investigating
whether power generating companies willfully
manipulated electricity supply in order to drive up
prices last year.
Lay was the only energy executive to meet alone
with Vice President Dick Cheney while Cheney was
drawing up a new national energy policy in secret.
Enron influenced public policy time and again while
Bush was governor here, including the infamous
"grandfathered plants" deal. In 1997, Lay asked
Bush to contact every member of the Texas
delegation to explain how "export credit agencies of
the United States are critical to U.S. developers
like Enron, pursuing international projects in
developing countries." These agencies provide
political risk coverage and financial support to U.S.
companies abroad. It's called corporate welfare.
In Texas, Enron was a major player during the
utilities deregulation debate, for which Bush lobbied
actively, and, of course, in "tort reform," making it
harder to sue corporations for the damage they do.
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