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

To: Zoltan! who wrote (228959)	2/20/2002 1:33:28 PM
From: MSI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"Gramm's ties to Enron go far beyond ideology or geography. His wife, Wendy Gramm, is a member of the Enron board. She joined the company in 1993, six weeks after resigning her post as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Just before she left that public office, Mrs. Gramm helped shepherd through a rule change that was fundamental to Enron's plans to deal in energy futures. The cynical among us might question that timeline. From public servant to well-compensated board member within weeks of giving said company a big boost with government rules. It doesn't stop there, though. Over the mid- and late '90s, Mrs. Gramm was handed plenty of stock and cash - all while her husband was leading the Senate committee charged with financial and other regulatory matters. In fact, Mrs. Gramm sold $270,000 worth of Enron stock in 1998 when Enron's own lawyers warned her of a "material conflict of interest" if she held Enron stock while her husband was pushing through an electric deregulation bill Enron wanted. The Gramms, of course, deny any improprieties. They note that Mrs. Gramm lost up to $700,000 in "deferred compensation" when Enron collapsed. And Sen. Gramm has said he and his wife never discussed her work at Enron. Let's assume the Gramms' version is accurate. You still have a U.S. senator pushing legislation that aids the company his wife works for - and on your dime. Had Gramm been a judge, he would have been expected to recuse himself from such matters - to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest. Ah, but this is the U.S. Senate, where the rules are, shall we say, more elastic. Not that Gramm has escaped notice. When asked about Gramm, Stabenow was quite critical. "Outrageous" and "inexcusable" were two of the words she used about his conduct. That's hardly a surprise, for a liberal Democrat to speak pointedly of a conservative Republican. Yet, in almost the same breath, Stabenow said she was not aware of any ongoing effort in the Democratically controlled Senate to punish Gramm, or even censure him. Gramm is scheduled to retire at the end of this year, taking with him a lucrative congressional pension. He may even land another tax-financed job, this time as president of Texas A&M University. For her part, Stabenow preferred to talk about someone going to jail for Enron's collapse and the policies of the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's cagey, since it throws attention away from Congress, which led the way in reducing the government oversight that made it possible for Enron to go rogue and cost thousands of Americans a big chunk of their retirements. Don't worry, though. Sen. Gramm will get his pension. If nothing else, the Senate will see to that. lsj.com