Posted on 05/25/2006 4:23:08 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Enron's Ties to Bush Run Deep
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement after the guilty verdicts of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling for their involvement in the Enron scandal:
"Today's guilty verdicts are another victory against the Republican culture of corruption that led President Bush’s buddy Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Jack Abramoff, Representative Tom Delay and others to believe that they were above the law. The Enron scandal epitomizes the pay-to-play politics that has enveloped the Bush White House and Republican-controlled Congress. Ken Lay was defrauding his employees and investors but he had no problem keeping the Bush campaign and RNC flush in cash. Americans are ready for new leadership that puts the people's interests before the special interests. Democrats are united in our commitment to change the way business is done in Washington."
THE TIES THAT BIND: ENRON AND KEN LAY'S TIES TO BUSH
Today, Enron founder Ken Lay was found guilty on six counts of conspiracy and fraud. A jury found that Lay helped engineer a conspiracy to artificially inflate Enron's profits, hide millions in losses and misrepresent the true nature of the company's finances. Until early 2004, Enron was President Bush's largest career patron and Ken Lay was a personal friend of President Bush. Now, Ken Lay is facing 20 to 30 years in jail for his role in one of America’s biggest corporate fraud scandals. ENRON'S FUNDING OF BUSH'S POLITICAL CAREER
Enron and Lay Were Strong Supporters of Bush and Republicans. Kenneth Lay, Enron's CEO, was a Bush Pioneer in 2000, raising at least $100,000 for the Bush Presidential campaign. Enron gave $1,114,490 to the RNC, $300,000 to the Bush inaugural, and $113,800 directly to Bush's presidential campaign from Enron employees. Lay was also a co-chairman of an April 2000 RNC gala tribute to Bush, meaning that he raised or contributed at least $250,000 for that event. At the time, Enron was Bush’s largest career patron. Furthermore, as the Financial Times reported, “Perhaps the greatest example of Mr. Lay's cache was an affectionate nickname from President Bush – ‘Kenny Boy’ - which reflected his close ties to the White House as both a donor and adviser.” [San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/11/01; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 4/27/00; Financial Times, 7/8/04; Center for Responsive Politics, www.crp.org; Political Money Line, www.tray.com]
* Lay Donated More Than $120,000 to Bush’s Gubernatorial Campaigns. Bush ran for Governor of Texas in 1994 and 1998. Enron CEO Kenneth Lay donated $122,500 to his campaign and Enron was a “Gold” sponsor for both gubernatorial inaugural committees that cost a total of $100,000. [USA Today, 11/30/01; Texas State Archives, “1995 Texas Inaugural Committee;” “1999 Texas Inaugural Committee”] * Bush Used Enron Corporate Jet as Presidential Candidate. In 1999, as a presidential candidate, the Bush campaign used Enron’s corporate jet for campaign purposes. According to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, Bush used the Enron corporate jet “eight times last year [1999], trips for which they were reimbursed” $25,302. Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne said that Bush personally approached Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and asked for use of the jet. [Washington Post, 2/1/00] * Enron Contributed Over $3 Million to GOP/Bush Sr. and W. in Ten-Year Span. From 1992-2002, Enron contributed a total $3,021,108 to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Bush-Quayle ‘92 and George W. Bush 2000. [Campaign Study Group, 1/02]
LAY AND BUSH HAD PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
Bush and Lay Met in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, “The relationship between Mr. Bush and Mr. Lay is close, and old: the two men got to know each other in the 1980’s, when Mr. Lay was a big political supporter of Governor Bush’s father, former President George Bush.” [New York Times, 6/30/00]
Lay Worked to Get Bush Library in Houston in 1989, Committed Funds in 1990. As early as July 1989, Ken Lay was leading a charge to bring the Bush presidential library to the University of Houston. In 1990, Lay, as University of Houston system Board of Regents chairman, announced that the board had committed $35 million toward the library. George H. W. Bush announced that Texas A&M in College Station would house his presidential library in spring of 1991. [Dallas Morning News/AP, 4/27/90; Chicago Tribune, 7/3/89; Houston Chronicle, 12/9/93]
Lay Worked With Bush on Houston Convention in 1992. According to the Houston Chronicle, “An ally of the elder George Bush, Lay worked closely with George W. Bush during the Republican National Convention in Houston in 1992, when Lay co-chaired the host committee.” Another Houston Chronicle story says, “Lay, a friend of Bush’s father, became close to the Oval Office’s current occupant in 1992. Lay was serving as co-chair of the host committee for the Republican National Convention in Houston, where the elder Bush was nominated for a second term.” [Houston Chronicle, 4/15/01; 12/29/01] ENRON AND CHENEY'S INFAMOUS ENERGY BILL
Lay Gave Cheney a Memo That Called for Rejection of Price Caps; Memo Was Integrated Into Energy Plan. During a meeting between then-Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and Cheney in April 2001, Lay gave Cheney a memo that outlined some of Enron's positions on energy. Included in the Enron memo were notes on price caps negative impact on energy markets. "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps or returning to archaic methods of determining the cost-base of wholesale power," the memo said. "Events in California and in other parts of the country demonstrated that the benefits of competition have yet to be realized and have not yet reached consumers," the memo said. Cheney's energy plan advocated against price caps and calls for a bail out for energy consumers in California. [San Francisco Chronicle, 1/30/02] FORMER ENRON EMPLOYEES WORKED FOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION
Former Economic Advisor Lawrence Lindsey Received $50,000 From Enron; Claimed to Have Given Enron “Macroeconomic Advice.” In 2000, former Bush economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey received $50,000 from Enron for consulting and described the work he provided to Enron as “macroeconomic advice.” “I was simply hired to give macroeconomic advice the way lots of other firms do,” Lindsey said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “I did my job. The accounting firm -- the accountants at Enron are the ones who are overseeing accounting.” [“Fox News Sunday,” 1/6/02; US News & World Report, 6/18/01]
Former Secretary of the Army Worked For Enron To Gain Contracts for Army Utilities. Former Secretary of the Army Thomas White was a former Vice President for Enron. At Enron, White oversaw Enron’s bidding for the privatization of Army utilities. [Associated Press, 6/20/01; 6/27/01]
Former US Trade Representative and Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick Was on Enron Advisory Board. Before being appointed US Trade Representative by Bush, Robert Zoellick was a member of Enron’s Advisory Council. [Press Trust of India, 7/21/01; Baltimore Sun, 1/12/01]
Former Commerce Department Chief Counsel Provided Legal Services for Enron. Former Department of Commerce General Counsel Theodore W. Kassinger listed his employment with Enron Corporation as “legal services” and the National Journal further defined his role as handling “international trade and project-financing work.” According to the Department of Commerce, “The General Counsel is the chief legal officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce” and oversees other offices. [“Personal Financial Disclosure Form,” Office of Government Ethics, 3/29/01; National Journal, 6/23/01; Department of Commerce]
Former RNC Chairman Marc Raciot Lobbied for Enron, Led Enron’s Western Advocacy Team. Former Montana Governor, former RNC Chairman and former Bush-Cheney ’04 Chairman Marc Racicot worked as a lobbyist for Enron at the Washington D.C. office of Bracewell & Patterson. According to the Wall Street Journal, Racicot was “the star of Enron’s Western states ‘advocacy team,’” tasked with lobbying Western politicians. [Associated Press, 10/16/01; Wall Street Journal, 5/18/01]
Former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie Registered Enron Lobbyist, Fought For $254 Million Break. On March 21, 2001, before becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee, Gillespie registered to lobby for Enron. Gillespie said he would lobby on energy deregulation and California's deregulation situation, and received $525,000 from Enron. Enron executives described Gillespie as their key contact to the White House. A former Enron employee described Gillespie as the company’s “hired gun,” and said, “Whenever we had to get in to see a Republican, the first call was to Gillespie.” Gillespie also lobbied for the DeLay “stimulus” bill, which would have given Enron a $254 million tax break. [Lobby Registration Report, 2/15/02; Newsweek, 2/4/02; Washington Post, 1/26/02]
* Gillespie Lobbied Lundquist to Have Enron-Friendly Language. In April 2001, then-Enron lobbyist Ed Gillespie e-mailed Andrew Lundquist, the energy task force executive director from Feb. 1, 2001, to Sept. 30, 2001 and asked if the administration’s talking points could include a number of proposals favored by Enron. Gillespie also tells Lundquist that they are “going into the field with a new nationwide poll next week” and to “please let me know if there’s anything you would like tested.” [Senate Committee on Governmental Reform, Exhibit #A-77, 11/12/02]
Karl Rove Held Over $100,000 of Enron Stock. White House Political Advisor Karl Rove held Enron stock worth between $100,000 to $250,000 while the Bush administration was writing its energy plan. [US News & World Report, 6/18/01]
Ralph Reed Lobbied For Enron. After receiving a recommendation from Karl Rove, Enron hired former Christian Coalition executive director and current candidate for Georgia Lt. Governor Ralph Reed for lobbying services. According to the New York Times, “Associates of Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political adviser, said he had recommended a lucrative consulting contract with Enron for Ralph Reed, the Republican strategist, as Mr. Bush was weighing whether to run for president.” In an October 23, 2000 memo to Enron, Reed wrote, “We are a loyal member of your team and are prepared to do whatever fits your strategic plan. … In public policy, it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard -- and by whom.” [New York Times, 1/25/02; Washington Post, 2/10/02; 2/17/02]
"Democrats' Ties to Satan Run Deep"
I think you'll find that Enron's ties to BJ are even better.
That's funny because Forbes magazine said some time ago that the bulk of Enron's illegal activities took place during the Clinton administration.
Clinton's lawyer, Robert Bennett, actually represented Enron.
I wrote a letter to the editor about this once and Clinton was in with Enron MUCH deeper than President Bush.
Not that the left ever let the facts get in the way of their agenda.
This is too easy, but on one on the Pubbie side has the balls to point this out...
http://talking_points.tripod.com/enron/id9.html
Enron's Crimes = Committed Under Clinton
Enron's Crimes = Punished Under Bush
Well....if Ken Mehlman was the gutter tripe that the DNC Chairman is....he would be able to tit-for-tat dig up all kinds of ties between DEMS and corrupt business people..
But, he won't.
Besides, anyone that would be swayed by this already hates Bush anyway...no harm, no foul.
Kindly fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. Here it comes, tra la!
"Enron's Crimes = Committed Under Clinton
Enron's Crimes = Punished Under Bush"
BINGO! Thank you for playing. You've just won an all expenses paid vacation in...................
I think Ken Lay contributed more money to Clinton, and I read that he was an overnight guest in the Clinton White House four times! Too bad they can't tell the WHOLE truth!
Waxman, the House Government Reform Committee's ranking Democrat, has been pressing for an investigation into contacts between Lay and White House officials to see if bankrupt Enron Corp. got special treatment.
Lay, chairman of the Houston-based energy giant, "has had unlimited access to the administration," Waxman complained.
While that may be true, the same could be said of Lay's access to the previous administration – something Democrats and the Washington media seem to be overlooking.
Government records examined by WorldNetDaily show that, during the Clinton years, Lay and other Enron executives got seats on at least four Energy Department trade missions and at least seven Commerce Department trade trips, including a junket to India that would later get Lay in some hot water.
From Jan. 13, 1995, to Jan. 21, 1995, Lay joined late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown on the India junket.
Half way through the mission, two federal export-finance agencies – the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. – announced they had agreed to lend nearly $400 million to an Enron-led group to build a $920 million electric power plant in Dabhoi, India.
The second phase of the power project called for building a 1,320-megawatt plant that would be fired by liquefied natural gas.
The project's overall value was about $3 billion.
Lay pal Mack McLarty, then-White House counselor, helped him close the deal by tracking the project with the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi and briefing Lay on the administration's efforts. (President Clinton even helped. White House documents uncovered by Time in 1997 show he wrote a Nov. 22, 1996, FYI note to McLarty and enclosed a newspaper article on Enron and the power project.)
Then in June 1996 – four days before India gave final OK to Lay's project – Enron gave $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee and Clinton's re-election effort.
Public-interest law firm Judicial Watch has pried away memo after memo showing that both Commerce and White House officials picked trade mission participants based on their support for the president's party.
Enron has denied the gift was political payback.
Seeds to the India deal may have been planted during a July 1, 1994, to July 15, 1994, trade mission led by former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary.
Terence Thorn, Enron's senior vice president for governmental affairs, accompanied O'Leary on that trip.
Clinton said he asked O'Leary to visit India "to further our talks on renewable energy."
Thorn had accompanied O'Leary previously, in February 1994, on a trade mission to China.
In September of that year, the Enron officer went on an Energy trade mission to Pakistan, and again, in August 1995, on a junket to South Africa.
O'Leary caught flak for her junkets because they ran over budget, and she couldn't account for many expenses.
But the controversy didn't stop there.
An analysis of Federal Election Commission records by Investor's Business Daily found that many of the major DNC donors who got seats on the trips tended to open their wallets wider after they returned, often scoring big business deals from the government-sponsored, taxpayer-paid overseas excursions.
There were several other Commerce trips, including one to Russia in March-April 1994 joined by Enron International Chairman and CEO Rodney Gray, one to South Korea in 1999 joined by Thorn, and one to the Middle East in October 1995 in which Lay participated.
Cronyism not limited to Bush
In a report last month exposing the cozy ties between Enron and the Bush administration, the Los Angeles Times pointed out that Lay is on a first-name basis with Bush, an old Texas oil buddy. Lay also has ties to top administration officials, such as White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey, an ex-Enron consultant, and U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick, a former Enron advisory board member, the article noted.
Left out of the L.A. Times' analysis, however, were Lay's similarly close ties to Clinton administration officials.
McLarty and Lay developed a friendship while working in the energy field together. Before becoming Clinton's chief of staff, and later his counselor, McLarty was chairman of Arkla Inc., which later became NorAm Energy Corp.
Largely as a result of that connection, Lay was a frequent visitor at the Clinton White House, records show.
Lay returned the favor by snatching up McLarty for Enron after he left the White House.
He also hired as a consultant Betsy Moler, Clinton's deputy energy secretary. She was accused of stopping Energy Department counterintelligence chief Notra Trulock from briefing Congress early on about Chinese espionage and security lapses at Energy's nuclear weapons labs.
In addition, Lay recently hired former Clinton Treasury official Linda Robertson, a Democrat, to run Enron's Washington office.
Enron contributed some $530,000 to the DNC during the 2000 election alone.
LOL. Poor rats. Enron is over in the next 24 hour news cycle. Totally over. Can't say the same for William "Cool Hard Cash" Jefferson, "Too Talky" Rockefeller, "Millions in Months" Mollohan, Harry "Big Wampum" Reid, Dick "Turban" Durbin and more to come. Hehehehe.....
classic...think the media will point out that Lay called Bush when Enron was sinking to ask for help and the President said "no"???
Remember how the Dems and their friends in the MSM TRIED this nonsense years ago when the scandel first broke?
They tried to make some sort of connection between Bush and Enron that would bring him down....but all they could do is parrot "Bush...Enron...Bush....Enron!" and NOTHING EVER materialized.
Zero.
Those looking into it found more connections between the Clinton administration and Enron than Bush. And that is where it ended.
The weakness of Democrats and the MSM is laughable...especially when you see them flailing wildly at Bush and making fools of themselves like this.
They are pathetic.
Please go to work for the Bush Administration. Or the RNC. You have given the easy answer to end the spin. Simple to understand and short enough to put on a t-shirt. Thank you!
To reply tit for tat to Dean's charges would not mean that Mehlmen is gutter tripe, instead it would mean that he wants to defeat the Democrats and keep the House and Senate.
Ping for your material!
How Enron "Worked" The President
This is an interesting bit of information that you don't hear much about.
A...Enron's chairman did meet with the president and the vice president in the Oval Office.
B..Enron gave $420,000 to the president's party over three years.
C..It donated $100,000 to the president's inauguration festivities.
D..The Enron chairman stayed at the White House 11 times.
E..The corporation had access to the administration at its highest level and even enlisted the Commerce and State Departments to grease deals for it.
F..The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in just one transaction. Scandalous!!
G..BUT...the President under whom all this happened WASN'T George W. Bush.
SURPRISE
It was Bill Clinton!!
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