-Caveat Lector- http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B903B88E7%2D7C09%2D4FC6%2DB706%2D49697A5B66F1%7D&;
Enron is not Bush's Whitewater Commentary: It will be worse By David Callaway, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:10 AM ET Jan. 10, 2002 Unlike the financial sideshow over a 20-year-old failed land deal that dogged the Clinton administration, the collapse of the nation's largest energy trader into the nation's largest bankruptcy last month is set to go straight to the heart of exposing what is wrong with the way the Bush administration is conducting itself these days. Once a buyer for Enron's (ENE: news, chart, profile) energy-trading business is announced Thursday in New York, this story is going to shift in dramatic fashion to Washington, D.C., where there are already eight separate congressional probes into the collapse, one Justice Department investigation and scores of unanswered questions. Many of them concern the White House. No smoking gun Don't expect to see either Bush or Vice President Cheney directly linked to the financial shenanigans that brought Enron down. They won't be. This is not about finding a smoking gun, as much as some Democrats might wish it were. What it is about, and what the public will get to hear and read about in wrenching detail over the coming months, is how business gets done down in Texas. How a small group of business leaders exert enormous clout over Bush and his team in getting the rules changed to their benefit. It will explain why Bush has locked up presidential records, locked out any voices opposed to his pro-business agenda and rammed through an expensive economic plan that wiped out the budget surplus but to date hasn't had any positive effect on the economy. It will explain what influence Enron Chief Executive Ken Lay and his advisers had with Cheney and his energy task force when they met six times last year while the vice president was putting together the administration's energy policy. And it will explain why Bush is now thinking about acting on a proposal from that very task force that seeks to roll back a key provision of the Clean Air Act that helps keep factory pollution down by requiring new controls when old plants are upgraded. A history of seeking favor Business leaders have always sought favors from politicians. That's nothing new. But in the case of Enron and Lay, a night in the Lincoln Bedroom was never going to be enough. Enron cultivated Bush from the time he first decided to run for governor of Texas, with executives donating a total of $623,000 to his two gubernatorial campaigns and presidential campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The company played a major role in Bush's decision to deregulate the Texas energy markets in 1999. Enron executives played a major role in Cheney's energy task force last year, meeting with the vice president's staff right up until a week before the company's stunning October announcement that it was slashing shareholder equity by $1.2 billion to cover losses in its off-balance-sheet partnerships. And Lay, who donated $100,000 to the Bush inaugural, remains mired in a controversy about whether a curious phone conversation he had with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission head Curtis Hebert last May had anything to do with Hebert's replacement by Bush last summer with the head of the Texas Public Utility Commission. This is just the beginning of what is going to come out once investigators do a little more digging, and once Lay and his minions are required to testify before Congress. Expect a steady diet of revelations about the extent of the energy giant's influence -- at the state, federal and even international levels. Enron won't bring down Bush. He remains enormously popular for his handling of the war and the rebuilding of the country's psyche after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But it will be a major thorn in his side through the rest of this presidential term, and it might even play a role in the next election, depending on what comes out. Enron, the company, will soon be gone. But Enron, the symbol of how big business and big politics sometimes conspire to fix the game, is just starting to dawn on the national consciousness. It's an ugly story. One that explains a lot about what's going on in our nation's capital right now. And it's only just beginning. David Callaway is executive editor of CBS.MarketWatch.com --------------------- Shares of Enron slid Thursday on the news that the U.S. Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the bankrupt energy trader. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7B372491B5%2D971C%2D48F8%2D8213%2D383A82030D19%7D For Ken Lay, the collapse of Enron Corp. goes beyond one of the largest and swiftest corporate meltdowns in U.S. history. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7BE641A6CE%2D3AF6%2D4FB1%2DBE34%2D263D150F6F2C%7D President Bush promised Thursday that his personal and political ties to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay would not stand in the way of a full federal investigation into America's largest bankruptcy. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7B32E07949%2D318E%2D4A0D%2DA45F%2DAFF91AF693A2%7D Shares of Enron slid Thursday on the news that the U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the bankrupt company. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7BB86AA5CD%2D54FC%2D4AF2%2DB4E6%2D182113012328%7D Investors and creditors are waiting Thursday for Enron to reveal the winning bidder for its trading assets, a decision the bankrupt company hopes will allow it to salvage the once-mighty money machine. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7BC4A20220%2D1B65%2D4124%2D8BDE%2D91C8FDEA533F%7D It looks like Dynegy will get what it wanted from Enron after all --but that's not the end of the companies' dispute. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7B1BE808EF%2DBC8F%2D40EC%2DAC1F%2D79327ACD4854%7D Delay said to be sought in Enron deal http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7B628F75BE%2DB74B%2D43F1%2D8EA2%2DF7BAF56F4709%7D Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the lead law firm for bankrupt Enron, has received several bids for its client's trading operations, according to a report Tuesday. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7BD60F9BAA%2D0A18%2D4501%2D9C16%2D2A8569ACE371%7D Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Monday that Dynegy Inc.'s settlement last week of a dispute with Enron over the ownership of Northern Natural Gas Pipeline won't affect its credit strength. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=mktwmore&guid=%7B880D8DE2%2D4595%2D4F91%2DAF1E%2D7CC86D70FC06%7D __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
