Kenny Boy Indicted

Drudge ^ | 7/7/04 | Drudge

[OneTimeLurker]

Ken Lay indicted.

[alwaysconservative]

Don't you think it's hilarious that you point out the facts and she gets mad at YOU? LOLOLOL! There she was, safe in her media womb, never hearing anything good about President Bush, and you had to rip her out into the cold, cruel, real world where the facts show otherwise.

I have a brother-in-law who STILL thinks President Bush invaded Iraq for oil for Halliburton, sigh.

[FreeAtlanta]

Slick's willy?

[Phantom Lord]

"The federal government's accounting tricks and money waste far exceeds anything Enron ever did,"

This statement is in fact a FACT no matter how much you wish it to be otherwise. How about Social Security? How about the Dept. of Education's books coming back "unaduitable" year after year after year. Or the DOD failing to account for nearly 1 TRILLION dollars??!?!?!

[Phantom Lord]

I have a brother-in-law who STILL thinks President Bush invaded Iraq for oil for Halliburton, sigh.

How many times have you told him that Halliburton isn't an oil company, and now many more times will you have too till he starts to believe it?

[Steve_Seattle]

"The more wrong you prove HER to be, the angrier at YOU she will get,"

And as SHE angrily ended our "relationship" (such as it was), she accused me of being "emotional" and "overreacting." My email response to her had contained no expletives, just facts, and I even conceded a few of the points (huge deficit, unnecessary tax breaks for upper-income brackets, etc.). But that wasn't good enough; any defense of Bush was simply beyond the pale.

[Joe Hadenuf]

lawyers close to the case believe it contains charges against ex-Chairman Ken Lay and that he will likely surrender Thursday.

About time. Put the SOB in chains....

[adam_az]

[adam_az]

Southack, this is from an old post of yours...


August 1993. New President Bill Clinton takes his first vacation, a golf weekend to Vail, Colorado.

Who shows up to visit with Clinton? Ken Lay, Enron CEO.


The Houston Chronicle
August 16, 1993, Monday, 2 STAR Edition SECTION: A; Pg. 5
HEADLINE: Clinton takes real vacation
BYLINE: GREG McDONALD; Staff
DATELINE: VAIL, Colorado

(excerpt)

A tired-looking Clinton, off on his first real vacation since becoming president, seemed reluctant Saturday morning to admit to reporters that he was having a good time. He kept mumbling stuff about health care being the next big ticket item on his domestic agenda. But by evening, he'd had such a good time on the local links with Ford, golf legend Jack Nicklaus and Houston's own Ken Lay, chairman of the Enron Corp. and one of George Bush's best pals, that he decided to stay over until today. Clinton, his face sunburned but beaming, told reporters that he and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and 13-year-old daughter Chelsea were having too good a time to leave Sunday as planned.

---

1994 - 1995 Clinton Administration "makes a sale" for Enron. Enron and the administration work together to win Enron the contract for a power plant in India.

Clinton uses resources from the CIA to assess risk and analyze the strategy of Enron's British competitor. The administration is instrumental in procuring $400 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The New York Times
February 19, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 3; Page 1; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk

HEADLINE: How Washington Inc. Makes a Sale
BYLINE: By DAVID E. SANGER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON

(excerpt)

For 18 months, the Indian power-plant deal has floated near the top of the list of 100 or so big infrastructure projects around the world that the United States Government desperately wants American firms to win. It is the first of eight big power generation projects in India, and if the American consortium could close this one, it would create a precedent likely to give other American companies an advantage in billions of dollars of follow-on deals. In years past, American officials would have offered some modest help, but only as a sideshow to bigger foreign policy concerns, from containing Communist influence in South Asia to keeping India and Pakistan from accelerating their nuclear arms race. But that was another era in American foreign policy, before the Commerce Department built what Jeffrey E. Garten, the undersecretary of commerce for international trade, calls "our economic war room."

From that Washington war room, the negotiators for the Enron Corporation, the lead bidder in the American consortium, have been shadowed and assisted by a startling array of Government agencies. In a carefully-planned assault, the State and Energy Departments pressed the firms' case. The American ambassador to India, Frank G. Wisner, constantly cajoled Indian officials. The Secretary of Energy, Hazel O'Leary, brought in delegations of other executives -- including some last week -- to make the point that more American investment is in the wings if the conditions are right.

To sweeten the pot, the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation put together $400 million in financing. And working just behind the scenes, as it often does these days, was the Central Intelligence Agency, assessing the risks of the project and scoping out the the competitive strategies of Britain and other countries that want a big chunk of the Indian market.

The big push by Washington Inc. paid off last month when the Indian government awarded the power plant project to the American consortium.

---

October 1995. Bill Clinton recruits Ken Lay to act as a point man for Clinton in drumming up support for Fast Track legislation. Lay just happens to be an old friend of Mack McClarty.


Journal of Commerce
October 10, 1995, Tuesday SECTION: FOREIGN TRADE, Pg. 3A
HEADLINE: OUTSIDERS CALLED IN TO END LOGJAM ON TRADE AUTHORITY
BYLINE: JOHN MAGGS; Journal of Commerce Staff
DATELINE: WASHINGTON

(excerpt)

Two distinguished political doctors have been brought in to try to revive a nearly dead bill allowing President Clinton to secure new trade agreements with other nations.

Bill Frenzel, a former Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Ken Lay, chief executive of natural-gas giant Enron Corp., have been called in to break a year-long impasse that has blocked meaningful progress on trade pacts with Chile, the rest of Latin America, and the Pacific im.

Both men are well known to one player in that dispute - Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, whose district includes Enron's headquarters in Houston. The two also have connections to the Clinton administration. Mr. Frenzel served as a special adviser to Mr. Clinton to lobby his former colleagues on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr Lay has been a friend of Clinton adviser Thomas "Mac" McLarty since Mr. McLarty's time as head of Arkansas' largest natural-gas utility.

---

August 1997 Clinton hosts Ken Lay at White House to discuss upcoming meeting in Kyoto, Japan concerning greenhouse gas.


The Houston Chronicle
August 6, 1997, Wednesday, 3 STAR Edition SECTION: BUSINESS; Business Digest; Pg. 1

HEADLINE: BRIEFCASE; White House warms to BP exec
BYLINE: Staff

(full text)

The Clinton administration, when calling business leaders to the White House to discuss what the United States' bargaining position on global warming should be at upcoming negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, chose John Browne of British Petroleum to represent the oil industry. But Browne is British, head of a London-based company. And Britain's new Labor government has blasted the United States for failing to go far enough to reduce greenhouse gases. So why was a Brit asked to participate? Browne has broken ranks with other oil executives to concede a buildup of carbon dioxide gases may be changing the Earth's climate. BP also happens to be the United States' largest crude oil producer with 13,000 employees in this country, company officials pointed out. Enron Corp.Chief Executive Ken Lay, who also was at the Monday meeting, said Clinton sounded Browne out on his opinions of the policies being pushed by the Europeans. Nobody seemed to worry the United States was tipping its hand. ""This is kind of early in the process,'' Lay said.

---

October 2000 Near end of Clinton's Presidency, but prior to the November election, a Clinton Assistant Treasury Secretary takes a position at Enron as vice president for federal government affairs. Observers call it a slap in the face to George Bush.


The Washington Post
October 12, 2000, Thursday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A23; SPECIAL INTERESTS

HEADLINE: Enron Hire Faces Some Partisan Fire
BYLINE: Judy Sarasohn

(excerpt)

Enron announced yesterday that Linda Robertson, assistant Treasury secretary for legislative affairs and public liaison, will join the Houston energy company in early November as vice president for federal government affairs. She will replace Joe Hillings, who earlier announced his retirement.

Ken Lay, chairman and chief executive of Enron, has given more than $ 290,000 of his own money to the Republican Party this year to help elect Bush, his longtime friend, president. But that didn't insulate Enron from criticism in some Republican quarters on Capitol Hill. "Enron has just slapped George W. Bush across the face. It just makes little sense," a GOP leadership aide said yesterday.

[FreeAtlanta]

Don't hold back Steve, let her have it! Otherwise, she will not see it on the main slime media or entertainment tonight, and will keep believing her ignorance as fact.

[Phantom Lord]

In the interest of facts, Ken Lay was President Ford's guest at that golf outing.

[Dog Gone]

PROSECUTION SCORECARD

CRIMINAL CHARGES
Total	30
GUILTY PLEAS	10
Ben Glisan Jr.	5 years in prison
Lea Fastow	1 year in prison
Andrew Fastow	Awaiting sentencing
Michael Kopper	Awaiting sentencing
Paula Rieker	Awaiting sentencing
David Duncan	Awaiting sentencing
Timothy Belden	Awaiting sentencing
Jeffrey Richter	Awaiting sentencing
Lawrence Lawyer	Awaiting sentencing
Dave Delainey	Awaiting sentencing
JURY CONVICTION	1
Arthur Andersen	Fined
OTHERS CHARGED	19
Jeff Skilling	Awaiting trial
Richard Causey	Awaiting trial
Nigerian barge deal
Dan Boyle	Awaiting trial
Sheila Kahanek	Awaiting trial
James A. Brown	Awaiting trial
Daniel Bayly	Awaiting trial
William Fuhs	Awaiting trial
Robert Furst	Awaiting trial
California energy crisis
John M. Forney	Awaiting trial
Broadband division
Ken Rice	Awaiting trial
Joe Hirko	Awaiting trial
Kevin Hannon	Awaiting trial
F. Scott Yeager	Awaiting trial
Rex Shelby	Awaiting trial
Kevin Howard	Awaiting trial
Michael Krautz	Awaiting trial
British bankers
Gary Mulgrew	Fighting extradition
David Bermingham	Fighting extradition
Giles Darby	Fighting extradition

[cake_crumb]

"This is a big, big story, great news for Bush, because it gives the lie to the Dems accusations that Bush wouldn't be tough on Enron"

Which is why I predict the mass media will spend about as much time on it as Nick Berg's murder. Factually reporting on Enron and Lay's indictment would blow holes in the carefully constructed "EEEEEEVEEEEL Bush/Cheny=Big Energy" propaganda pushed on us for the past three years. With the exception of Fox, the "news" as we think of it has been completely dead for years.

[Steve_Seattle]

That New York Times article should be required reading for all democrats; it proves beyond doubt that it was the Clinton administration, not the Bush administration, that was helping line the pockets of Enron.

[cake_crumb]

I'd be a moron if I believed there was no waste or fraud in the beuracratic leviathan that is the federal government (or the government of any other country)

The statement I want you to back up with fact is the specific allegation that the president's main concern is covering up government scandals:

"That's because GWB's main concern is taking everybody's eyes off of government scandals."

That was clear in my first post.

[FreeAtlanta]

Everyone, Push it to the Yahoo Most Popular Top!

[Steve_Seattle]

It will be very interesting to see how much play this story gets and how it will be spun. But you can be sure that there will be little if any mention of the Clinton-Enron ties. It will be "Bush's buddy Ken Lay is indicted," not "Bush administration indicts Enron CEO." Or, if the latter, the Bush-Enron connection will be highlighted no later than the second sentence of the story; the Clinton-Enron connection will be buried deep in the story, if mentioned at all.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Ken Lay was also a Clinton buddy

Ken Lay was everyone's buddy...

Since 1989, Enron and Lay had been major backers of the Republican Party and President George W. Bush, whose Justice Department is now responsible for his prosecution. Lay and Enron gave almost $6 million in federal contributions between 1989 and the company's collapse, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

Lay, who met privately with Vice President Dick Cheney in 2001 to discuss energy policy, helped raise $312,500 for President Bush's two Texas gubernatorial campaigns, according to the nonpartisan Texans for Public Justice. Enron and its employees contributed $113,800 to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, Federal Election Commission Records show.

[Steve_Seattle]

I can just hear Dan Rather spin this: "In an embarrassing turn for the Bush administration, a federal grand jury has indicted former Enron CEO, Ken Lay, a personal friend and supporter of President Bush. Lay, once dubbed "Kenny Boy" by the President, was a member of Dick Cheney's energy task force and a major donor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. Bob Schieffer reports from Houston . . . "

[FreeAtlanta]

"We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing, when it's all done, we haven't told you a thing. People love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry."

[Moonman62]

Back that statement up with fact. Generalities like "The federal government's accounting tricks and money waste far exceeds anything Enron ever did," are not facts.

Sure. The most obvious is the Ponzi structure of the Social Security system.

Last year's spending increases were hidden by moving the increases to the previous year.

This year's spending increases are going to be taken out of the military budget. A special appropriations bill will be done after the elections to make up the difference.

And if you don't think the federal government wastes billions every day, you're probably on the wrong website. Do you really think the federal government was underfunded by 30% when GWB took office?