http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/enron.asp
Claim: Democrats and the Clinton administration received more campaign contributions from Enron and were more accommodating of Enron's lobbying efforts than Republicans and the Bush administration.
Status: False.
The attempt made in the piece of netlore quoted above to deflect blame from the Bush administration and dump it onto the Clinton White House includes some major inaccuracies, such as the claim that "the Enron chairman stayed at the White House 11 times" during President Bill Clinton's tenure in office. But as Brendan Nyhan revealed in a 2002 article, Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was never an overnight visitor at the White House during the Clinton adminstration — although, according to Nyhan, "Lay did, however, stay at the White House when George H.W. Bush was president."
As well, given the General Accounting Office's investigation into connections between Enron and Vice President Dick Cheney's planning of Bush administration energy policy, "the corporation's access to the administration at its highest levels" apparently continued well after Bill Clinton left the White House. According to USA Today: Enron spent nearly three times as much money lobbying the Bush administration in the first half of 2001 as it initially reported.
The collapsed energy-trading company spent at least $2.46 million on efforts to influence energy and budget decisions and support its international ventures, according to an amended lobbying report Enron filed with the House and Senate on March 1. As for the supposedly shocking monetary figures bandied about ("Enron gave $420,000 to the [Democratic] president's party over three years. It donated $100,000 to the president's inauguration festivities."), those numbers don't come close to matching what was reported about Enron's contributions to George W. Bush and the Republican party in The Hartford Courant:
continued at snopes.com
None of that matters, anyway. Kenlay himself is a Republican, so there's that, to begin with. His felonious behavior, however, doesn't and *shouldn't* reflect on the GOP, from my point of view.
It's extremely obvious that Lay-as-Enron only gave money to politicians from whom he wanted business favors, to line his own pockets. It wasn't "personal" and he wasn't "friends" or "buddies" with any of them - except maybe his next-door-beach-neighbor, the now-deceased Lloyd Bentsen. Oh, and any of the Aspenites he pal-ed around with (note that he got special dispensation yesterday from the judge to be able to travel to Aspen, because he did so regularly before the conviction, that's in spite of being in the range of negative net worth, or so he says).
If he saw 41 around town, that's one thing. If he truly was asked for use of the Enron corporate jet by the POTUS (why?) or Dubya as the GuvTX, I'm certain he wasn't the only one. And I'm also certain it was a "have my people call his people" kind of thing, not a buddy-buddy deal. I'm a nobody and I could've done the same thing with a few of the good old boys - and have, in the past.
Lay only did whatever would make him look good, if you notice. Also note how the $$spending accelerated the worse the finances of Enron got. Those big buck$$ in 2001 are dollars of desperation.
As to the energy policy meetings and so forth, so what? Why wouldn't you have people from energy companies represented at those?
A lot of "collusion" allegations also just simply stem from geographic proximity. Lay lives in Houston, Bush41 lives in Houston, Pres W Bush sometimes considers Houston his hometown, although he hasn't lived here much in recent decades. We'll just say all are Texas people who have worked in the same industry - we can include Cheney in there, too.
The important thing to note is that he was just one of many, many people of similar situations who were included in all kinds of business conferences with those in DC. His "Enron" talking points they say were adapted by the agencies were probably the same talking points others in the industry had, including myself. Lay also had a way of making people think he was a lot smarter and savvier than he really was, so his opinions would "matter;" it is only after December 2001 that the majority of the public saw it was all a sham.
I was around KennyBoy a lot in the planning of the GOP convention here in 1992. He was one of those who showed up or sent "people" just to get their name in the "thank you" stuff.
Just about everyone at Enron was like that, if you ever sat on any kind of committee with them, which I did. I'm one of those volunteers and/or paid consultants who works on these events and their press. I suit up and show up - they seldom did, but always made sure they got credit for whatever.
That was behind all the inauguration money (less than he spent on one of his wife Linda's birthday parties, please note) and so forth. Pure self-interest.