GOP image at risk in Enron saga
" As probes of White House dealings with firm grow, the perception of
cozy ties to business may hurt Bush most. coziness with business,
biggest risk may be with voters. For Bush, a big one is that more voters
will see him - and his party - as too closely aligned with big business."
By Francine Kiefer | Staff writer
The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON - The facts of the Enron case as revealed so far may
not be the biggest danger to the White House. Nor is it the
investigative drumbeat of eight congressional committees and the
Justice Department pursuing the case.
Rather, analysts say, what most threatens the president is
revelations about just how close-knit the ties were between the Bush
team and Enron executives - the kind of detail that fuels perceptions
of the Republican Party as an exclusive club for big money.
George W. Bush, who has tried to temper
that one-dimensional image of his party via
his "compassionate conservative" slogan,
knows the damage this stereotype can do -
especially in an election year, and especially
when a recession is pinching "the little guy."
"During the weak economy, the worst thing
to have is the perception that you cater to
the well-heeled," says Marshall Wittmann, a
political analyst at the conservative Hudson
Institute here. "There may very well be no
misdeeds at all, but I don't think that's the
vulnerability. The vulnerability is the
administration's cozy corporatism."
That tight relationship is underscored by
developments in the Enron case so far. Last
week the administration announced that
Kenneth Lay, Enron's chairman, called
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and
Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a
long-time friend, for help last fall before his
firm collapsed in America's biggest
bankruptcy ever. Enron's president also
made several calls to the assistant Treasury secretary, seeking help
with bank loans. In all instances, according to the administration, the
Cabinet officials declined to offer aid.
President Bush says he never discussed Enron's financial difficulties
with Mr. Lay, a Texas friend and the president's biggest individual
financial contributor. The administration has been adamant that it
gave no favors in return for all Enron's financial backing.
That support runs as deep as a Texas oil well. The Enron chief has
donated about $650,000 to Mr. Bush over the course of his political
career. In the 2000 election, the Houston-based company, including
Lay, doled out $2.4 million in donations - about three-quarters of that
to Republican candidates. Attorney General John Ashcroft has
recused himself from the Justice Department's criminal investigation,
because Enron executives donated more than $50,000 to his failed
bid for a US Senate seat.
The administration has recently acknowledged that Bush's task force
on energy met six times with Enron officials as it formulated its
energy plan last year. Vice President Dick Cheney, who, like the
president, is a former Texas oil executive, headed the task force. The
Government Accounting Office is waiting for Mr. Cheney to hand over
details of meetings with Enron and other industry officials.
Democrats so far haven't jumped on the Enron episode with
undisguised relish, but they are nonetheless using it to try to
reinforce the image of a president beholden to big business.
"Enron now becomes shorthand for Democrats trying to convey to
the American people the irresponsible way that the Bush
administration ... puts special interests above those of the average
American," says Jennifer Palmieri, Democratic National Committee
spokeswoman.
Echoing Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on
the House Committee on Government Reform, she wonders why
Bush administration officials, once aware of Enron's financial
distress, "didn't do anything" to prevent the loss of retirement savings
of thousands of the firm's employees.
Bush, for his part, has not exactly kept his ties to business under
wraps. Rather, at times he flaunted them as a sign of broad-based
backing. During the presidential campaign, for instance, he boasted
he didn't need federal dollars for his bid, because he could rely on
supporters in the private sector. Indeed, the campaign turned out to
be the best-funded in American history, with money arriving in
$100,000 increments.
Still, some voters found these fundraising methods distasteful. And
once Bush was in office, his ties to the corporate world at times
made him vulnerable to charges of putting business interests ahead
of the public interest. Such charges dogged him, for instance, when
the administration set policy on arsenic levels in drinking water,
greenhouse gases, energy, and tax cuts.
Interestingly, Bush's role as wartime commander-in-chief is what has
helped him more than any "compassionate conservative" slogan.
Whether it was visiting with firefighters or sticking up for Islam, he
has succeeded - for the first time in decades - in changing the image
of the Republican Party, says a GOP pollster who asked not to be
named.
"When you pose the question, 'Are Republicans too close to big
business and the wealthy,' we've always had about two-thirds of
Americans agree with that statement. That has now moved to tied,"
said the pollster, whose findings have not yet been made public.
The Bush administration does not want to lose that headway. The
president may have told year-end interviewers that he made no
mistakes last year, but the White House is obviously doing some
corrective work. Last week, Bush announced a significant increase in
the budget to clean up abandoned, polluted industrial sites. Earlier,
the White House said it was extending food stamps to immigrants. In
its coming budget, it reportedly plans to distance itself from corporate
tax cuts by merely mentioning "principles" for an economic-stimulus
package.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer disputes the theory that the
Enron case will reinforce unwelcome stereotypes of the president and
his party. He points out that Bush is leading the investigation,
directing a review of policies to protect people's pensions, and
focusing on the criminal investigation of Enron's alleged wrongdoing.
"Politics and perceptions - the president is pleased to leave those to
other people here in Washington," Mr. Fleischer says.
Others in the White House warn against the Democrats' overplaying
their hand. "If the American people were sick and tired of political
investigations of Bill Clinton, what makes anybody think the
American people will react well to politically inspired investigations of
the commander-in-chief at a time of war, particularly one where
there's not even an inkling of wrongdoing?" one administration official
says.
Still, just because the administration does not appear to have been
involved in any quid pro quo, political observers here say it still has
work to do. Two months elapsed between the time Enron leaders
spoke with Cabinet officials and when the White House revealed
those conversations. Analysts say the administration needs to be
more forthcoming about other contacts, and some even advise Bush
to get out in front of the big-money issue and support a ban on
unlimited "soft money" campaign contributions in his State of the
Union message.
There seems to be no thought of the latter, but as to full disclosure,
Mr. Fleischer says, "We will cooperate with everyone who is not
involved in fishing expeditions."
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