Posted on 01/16/2002 4:02:39 PM PST by Liz
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman's former top aide, working as an Enron lobbyist, met three times with the senator's staff and tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting between Enron's chairman and Lieberman * now leading an investigation of the oil giant.
Lobbyist Michael Lewan served three years as Lieberman's chief of staff and remains a political adviser, but the relationship won't affect the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee inquiry, Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein said Wednesday.
The lobbyist and Lieberman talked from time to time "but not about Enron," Gerstein said. "The senator was aware that Enron added him (Lewan) as a client."
The revelation adds to a growing list of Washington politicians whose ties to Enron have come under scrutiny in the aftermath of the jolting financial collapse of one of America's largest companies.
Lieberman, the unsuccessful vice presidential candidate in 2000, was one of the first lawmakers to announce an investigation of Enron after its December bankruptcy.
Earlier, the senator had asked for a review of contacts between a federal official and Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay. The Connecticut Democrat also has cautioned colleagues not to jump to conclusions about Enron's political connections with the Bush administration or Congress before having all the facts.
Enron executives were among the largest source of donations to President Bush's campaign, and just a week before filing for bankruptcy protection the company donated $100,000 to the Senate Democrats' fund-raising committee.
"We don`t know enough to know whether any of that influence in any way stopped the administration or agencies of our federal government from protecting average shareholders who lost their life savings when Enron collapsed," Lieberman said this week.
In addition to its political donations, Enron and its affiliates reported spending about $1 million in the first half of 2001 on a star-studded lobbying team in Washington. That team included former Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn, ex-Democratic Louisiana Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, former Al Gore adviser Greg Simon and Republican strategist Ed Gillespie.
Lewan said he worked as an Enron lobbyist from June through November, earning some $40,000. Lewan, who worked as Lieberman's chief of staff from 1989 to 1992, said he tried to build relationships for the company with Democratic members of Congress who focused on energy issues, but not his former boss.
"I wasn't hired to lobby Joe Lieberman," Lewan said. "We're still personal friends. The last thing I want to be is a political burden to him." But Gerstein acknowledged Lewan tried to arrange a meeting this summer between Lay and Lieberman.
Gerstein said he didn't know what Lay wanted. The meeting never took place because Lieberman had initiated a General Accounting Office investigation of Lay's contact with a federal energy official that was still ongoing at the time.
"We thought it was inappropriate to meet with Ken Lay while that investigation was going on," Gerstein said. The GAO is Congress' investigative agency. Gerstein said Lewan did meet with Lieberman staff members three times in June and July.
Lewan met with the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's energy expert, David Berick, on price gouging in California. He discussed the company's broadband business with Chuck Ludlam of Lieberman's personal staff. And he had an introductory, courtesy meeting with the committee staff director, Joyce Rechtschaffen.
How did this relationship become public? Did someone ask (highly unlikely) or did someone just find out about it? I just want to see if anyone in the media will ask Joe LIE, "Senator, will you recuse yourself?" I know, I know, he never would, he's a sleazy dem, but I'd just like to see someone in the media with the brass to ask.
This may be a great opportunity to talk to the perfectly good wife that Joe LIE discarded so he could marry his wealthy trophy new wife. What does his first wife know and when did she know it?
Sounds like one of those memorable slogans that end up on tee shirts.
Have you seen this?
Enron contributed at total of $25,000 in 2000 to the group Lieberman founded, the New Democrat Network, according to IRS records. Also, Enron's biggest creditor, Citigroup, Inc. is listed as his largest single contributor ($112,546) for the period 1997-2002 (FEC records). Citigroup, Inc. also made $100,000 in contributions to the New Democrat Network in 2001. Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditing firm, contributed $20,000 to the New Democrat Network in 2001.
"President Lieberman" is an even bigger joke today than it was a week ago, when it was already pretty funny.
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