Why doesn't Cheney just release the info...?
Even though I like the guy he clearly doesn't have the best advisors...The best way to diffuse a potential scandal is to be straightforward, honest and forthcoming. Put your cards out on the table. Sometimes that's much better than the appearance of hiding something (that you will probably will have to reveal anyway). It looks like he may be sued if he doesn't step up to the plate and reveal more about the development of the energy policy...
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GAO Vows to Sue For Cheney Files
By Dana Milbank and Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 26, 2002; Page A01
<<The head of a congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's energy proposals said yesterday he would sue the White House next week if the administration does not comply with his demands, in what would be the first legal action of its kind between the legislative and executive branches of government.
U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, said the White House "may be reconsidering" its nine-month opposition to releasing records of the task force headed by Vice President Cheney that drafted the administration's energy policy. Lawmakers are seeking to learn what influence companies such as Enron Corp., which had six meetings with the task force, had on the proposals.
If the White House does not reverse course next week, "it looks as if we'll be heading to court," Walker said. "Unless we get the information or we're in the middle of intense negotiations, I'm not going to sit on this much longer."
The ultimatum from the GAO escalated a battle with the White House at a time when the administration faces questions from various directions about its ties to Enron, the now disgraced energy concern led by executives close to President Bush. Democratic lawmakers have asked whether Enron had disproportionate influence in the administration because of campaign donations, a suggestion the White House adamantly rejects.
Former Enron executives disclosed yesterday that a top Bush campaign adviser, Edward Gillespie, served as the company's key conduit to the White House and House leaders. Gillespie's firm received $525,000 over nine months last year from Enron for lobbying that included the energy task force and economic stimulus legislation with tax provisions that would have helped Enron.
Also yesterday, Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, said it would file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission to determine whether Karl Rove, Bush's top campaign adviser, arranged for an Enron consulting contract for strategist Ralph Reed instead of paying him from campaign funds. The White House and Reed yesterday denied a charge, made by an anonymous source in a New York Times article, that Reed's contract was arranged to keep his allegiance to Bush during the early days of the Texas governor's presidential bid.
New information was released yesterday showing that the White House amended a draft energy proposal by the State Department to include a provision favorable to Enron. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the White House's main antagonist over the energy task force records, released papers indicating the White House added to the final report a call to boost energy production in India. In between the draft and the final report, Enron officials had met with the task force, Waxman's staff said.
The development could be significant because the change was made at about the same time the White House was expanding an effort to aid Enron in India. The company was in a dispute with the Indian government over its Dabhol project, a gas-fueled power plan. As efforts to resolve the dispute foundered, Enron sought $2.3 billion from India for its interest in the plant. Cheney spoke twice with Indian officials and Bush was slated to discuss the matter under a campaign coordinated by the National Security Council.
The White House's energy policy, issued on May 17, recommends "the president direct the Secretaries of State and Energy to work with India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to help India maximize its domestic oil and gas production." But there was no mention of such a recommendation in a March 30 draft of that section of the report, written by the State Department and released yesterday by Waxman. Cheney met with Kenneth L. Lay, then Enron's chairman, on April 17.
Various organizations have sought to obtain records of the energy task force's meetings, without success. Earlier this week, several Senate committee chairmen wrote to Walker encouraging him to proceed with his efforts.
"I'm confident now the appropriate people in the White House have an understanding of what our position is and how seriously we're taking it," Walker said. If there is no change, he said the GAO would file the first suit against an administration since the office was created in 1921.
Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman, said yesterday that "nothing has changed" in the administration's position.
New information about former Bush communication aide Gillespie's ties to the Cheney task force indicated another level of ties between Enron and the administration. Former Enron officials said their key link to the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill was Gillespie, a former aide to House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.). Gillespie had worked in the lobbying firm of former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour before setting up his own lobbying partnership in January 2000, with Jack Quinn, former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.
Gillespie "was our hired gun," recalled one former Enron employee. "Whenever we had to get in to see a Republican, the first call was to Gillespie."
After the Bush victory, Gillespie served briefly as acting director of public affairs at the Commerce Department. He then turned to representing Enron before the administration and Congress on energy policy and repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax.
Gillespie was in touch with staffers on the energy task force in 2001. He also met with officials at the Energy Department, and helped set up meetings on energy policy for Enron representatives with key lawmakers.
The office of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) said Enron executive Jeffrey K. Skilling buttonholed Tauzin at a fundraiser for Tauzin's political action committee on April 4 at the offices of Quinn & Gillespie. Skilling, whom Tauzin had not met before, asked for 10 minutes in private. Skilling made a pitch for legislation that would mandate state membership in regional electricity transmission organizations. Tauzin listened but said nothing, Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said, and soon after announced his opposition to mandatory membership.
As the economy faltered last fall and Congress and the administration began working on stimulus legislation, Enron called on Gillespie to promote a tax relief package that would include scrapping the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). Sources said that Gillespie contacted House leadership officials as well as the White House staff. Enron was one of dozens of companies lobbying for repeal of the AMT, which was part of Bush's proposal.
The House added a provision that would have allowed companies such as Enron to immediately claim outstanding tax credits, which in Enron's case totaled $254 million. Sources said Enron did not advocate an immediate payment. But Enron's Lay called White House budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. to inquire about the status of the stimulus plan when it became clear the company was in financial peril.
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), asked about the report of Rove's effort to help Reed, said that there should be "full disclosure, a full and open debate about whatever connection, whatever relationship there may have been" between Enron and the administration.
Rove, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the Enron consulting contract for Reed. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush's top political adviser was merely providing a character reference. "Karl Rove gave Ralph Reed a good recommendation, as we all would, as we all do," Fleischer said.
Reed said the people who hired him "never had any conversations with Karl Rove regarding that decision" and said there was no effort by the campaign to get Enron to pay him because his firm was "being paid by the Bush campaign almost from the inception all the way to Election Day."
Reed, who obtained the Enron contract in 1997, was eventually paid by the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee, the RNC said, with the first payments beginning in October 1999.>>
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Staff writer Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.
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