Speaking of Ken Lay...we saw the documentary, THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM yesterday. It was really fascinating. But of course, there was the Bush thing. NO MENTION, AT ALL, that Enron thrived, did ALL of it's misdeeds during the Clinton years. Not a peep about all the time Lay spent at the White House during the Clinton years. The only time a politician was mentioned was, or course, when they said how happy Lay was that his friend GWBush waw in the White House and then the obligatory footage of him meeting with Bush. Of course, it all came toppling down less than a year after his savior, Bush got into office. The movie also makes it look like it was only Democrats who really cared about bringing Enron down. Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman were the only people shown during the hearings admonishing Skilling. I was very disappointed, but not surprised. But do see this movie if you get a chance. And Lay faking his own death? Why not? He pulled the wool over the eyes of thousands and thousands of very smart people for a very long time.
I saw a good bit of it and noticed the same Bush bashing. I cracked up when they showed that little dramatization of Skilling's bright idea of "Hypothetical Value Accounting".
I read this somewhere last week:
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!
Funny how there would be no mention of Democrat Mayor Lee P. Brown (mayor of Houston) who served in the Clinton Administration and buddied with Ken Lay to get Houston's new baseball park approved by voter referendum (it passed by 1% margin).