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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (226550)	2/12/2002 2:23:54 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

POLL ANALYSES Feb. 12, 2002 Former Enron CEO Lay Faces Skeptical Public, Not Just Congress Majority believes Enron executives acted illegally by Lydia Saad GALLUP NEWS SERVICE Send to a Friend Message to the Author PRINCETON, NJ -- Former Enron chief Kenneth Lay’s intention to assert his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions from congressional investigators this week may only sustain the public’s view that executives at his company acted illegally in the course of Enron’s decline into bankruptcy. According to a Feb. 8-10 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 65% of Americans believe that Enron executives acted illegally -- exactly the same percentage who felt this way in late January. Another 26% of Americans believe Enron executives acted unethically, leaving just 2% who think they did nothing wrong, and 7% who are unsure. Despite some recent controversy over Vice President Dick Cheney’s possible involvement with Enron executives on his energy task force, the poll reconfirms the January finding that Americans primarily view the Enron bankruptcy debacle as a business scandal, not a political scandal. In contrast to the strong public indictment of Enron, very few Americans -- ranging from 11% to 15% -- say that the Bush administration, the Republicans in Congress, or the Democrats in Congress had illegal dealings with Enron. A fair number do, however, believe that these politicians may have acted unethically. Looking at perceptions of illegal and unethical behavior combined, 91% of Americans believe Enron executives are guilty of something, compared to 58% who feel this way about the Bush administration, 54% about Republicans in Congress and 50% about Democrats in Congress. Little Differentiation of the Parties’ Roles The close ties of President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney to the oil and gas industries in general, and to Enron in particular, have made them targets for Democratic criticism that Enron executives may have received untoward special treatment from the White House. However, other facts have been disclosed about the amount of Enron campaign contributions received by Democratic members of Congress, and the fact that Democrat Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton and now an executive with Citigroup, made phone calls to the Bush administration on Enron’s behalf. With all of these political charges and countercharges swirling around the Enron story, it appears that the public sees the two parties in roughly the same light on the issue. Not only do Americans have similar perceptions of the degree of wrongdoing by the Bush administration, the Republicans in Congress, and the Democrats in Congress -- as evidenced by the chart -- but when asked directly about which party is more mixed up in the Enron situation, the majority says they are equally involved. Let the Sun Shine In Although the public is not paying particularly close attention to news of the Enron story -- only 23% are following it "very closely" and another 47% "somewhat closely" -- a majority do believe that the Enron situation is very important to the nation. Fifty-two percent describe it as very important and 37% as somewhat important, while only 8% say it is either not too important or not important at all. This public concern is much higher than that recorded for either Whitewater or the presidential pardons during Bill Clinton’s presidency, where at most 24% and 33% of Americans, respectively, rated the situation as very important. Americans perceive the Enron case to be highly important -- which is perhaps why they are willing to see Congress investigate to get to the bottom of the contacts that members of the Bush administration may have had with Enron executives. Eighty-two percent believe this should occur, while just 14% disagree. Even a majority of Republicans, 62%, support the idea of a congressional investigation into the Bush-Enron connection. Indeed, less than half the public (47%) believes the Bush administration is cooperating as much as possible in letting the public know about its contacts with Enron; 43% think they are trying to cover up these contacts. However, partisanship is in full view here -- a majority of Republicans (74%) say the administration is fully cooperating, and a majority of Democrats (66%) say it is covering things up. Human Toll Grips Americans More Than Campaign Finance Angle Americans focus their blame on Enron in this bankruptcy scandal. Thus, it is no surprise that the vast majority say the most important fact about the situation is the financial toll on Enron employees and retirees -- not the possibility that campaign contributions led to political favoritism toward Enron, nor the basic fact that Enron executives allowed a major U.S. corporation to decline into bankruptcy and near-collapse. When three potential aspects of the controversy were read to respondents in the survey, "the fact that many Enron employees lost their jobs and their retirement savings while Enron executives made millions" was the most troubling to 65% of Americans. Only 9% chose "the fact that Enron contributed millions of dollars to politicians and may have expected favorable treatment in return" as being the most important issue in the Enron situation. Another 13% saw "the fact that the actions of Enron executives led a large corporation to suddenly collapse and go bankrupt" as being most important. gallup.com