Whitewater Critics Quiet About Enron

The New York Observer | December 24, 2001 issue | Joe Conason

[an amused spectator]

Another truly bizarre column from Ol' Dead Eyes. Isn't amazing how he manages to avoid mentioning the fact that Enron contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clintons and the DNC, and that Enron throve under "Shakedown Central" (aka The Clinton White House)?

Bill Gates and Microsoft weren't smart enough to pay off the Clintons, so they paid the price. But Enron greased the wheels of Billary and the DNC, so they sailed through the Clinton WH years.

Conason only brings the Clintons up to insinuate that they were the 'victims' of the Whitewater investigation (in his mind).

He also quotes Lyons and Ivins as if everyone didn't have a clue that they are Bush-hating perpetual Clinton suction machines.

Sorry, Joe - defending Clinton all those years blew your credibility. Maybe you can get a job writing ad copy somewhere - the copy would be less subjective. ;-)

[andrew]

Enron critics not only were silent about Whitewater, but wrote books explaining it away. Please go away, Joe. You are beyond irrelevant.

[steve50]

Looks like both sides are involved in this scam. With the potential to damage both parties politically, this investigation is going absolutely nowhere. That became apparent when congress dismissed a panel already investigating Enron to undertake its' own "investagation".

[dirtboy]

Whitewater Critics Quiet About Enron

The Clintons were DIRECTLY involved with the Whitewater scam. Bush is not directly involved with Enron. Typical slime piece from journa-slug Conason.

[Non-Sequitur]

This won't go away quietly. There are too many members of the Bush administration with Enron connections for the Democrats to allow this to fade away. Watch to the hearings to start in ernest sometime next summer - just in time for the elections.

[Steven W.]

Whitewater involved the bilking of a US Savings & Loan, at a cost of billions to US Taxpayers and to benefit of Clinton's criminal cronies. Enron, like a thousand other companies, tech & otherwise, which have failed over the past couple years, is just yet another story of the stock market collapse & subsequent failing of the economy, into full blown recession, following the Microsoft decision. I was getting sick listening to those people testify yesterday - not because I didn't have sympathy for them; but, rather, because they've just joined the "club" and seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that, for some reason or another, millions of other Americans have been feeling that pain for some time now.

[Moby Grape]

Joe Conason was the defacto "Secretary of Innocent Snafus and Coincindences" in the Clinton Administration.

[independentmind]

Bill Gates and Microsoft weren't smart enough to pay off the Clintons, so they paid the price. But Enron greased the wheels of Billary and the DNC, so they sailed through the Clinton WH years.

Enron appears to have greased all wheels, Democrat and Republican. Trying to pin all of this on the Clinton Administration is intellectually dishonest.

[an amused spectator]

The record will show that Clinton and the DNC took "cuts" to the head of the line. Reminds me of some dialogue in a Turtledove novel - "Do you futter in line, too?" - the Celt to the Roman legionnaire, at the beginning of The Misplaced Legion. ;-)

[beckett]

Perhaps Whitewater critics haven't commented on Enron because the two cases are entirely different. Just a thought.

[Non-Sequitur]

Hellooo. Do you think that the press is going to care about any Clinton connection if they can connect members of the current Republican administration to Enron?

[an amused spectator]

It is a well-established fact that Enron whored for both parties. See my post, just above.

Now that you mention it, it's fascinating to observe that the grease on "the skids" dried up ONLY AFTER THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION LEFT OFFICE.

I imagine Jan "the Man" and Eric were kind of busy with the Microsoft investigation, though. ;-)

[B-A-Grizzley]

Where's the Barf/Spew alert??

Cleaning off keyboard now.

[rdavis84]

From the last one I posted (by Uri Dowbenko) that had Repubs bouncing off the walls --- They didn't want to read, just yell-----

Enron Rigs Washington During the Clinton Years

Even though it has strong ties to the Republican Party, Enron also did remarkably well during the Clinton years.

Most importantly, they got a ban lifted on Export-Import Bank financing of projects in China.

This allowed Enron to move forward on overseas projects guaranteed by US taxpayers. In other words, if Enron "fails," you pay.

Enron also got new rules instituted at the Ex-Im Bank that allowed the bank to finance projects on the basis of projected cash flow.

This insider track helped Enron make multi-billion dollar deals overseas with US taxpayers guaranteeing their performance.

* March 1993, Enron made a deal to develop new European markets for Russian gas.

* November 1993, Enron made a $1 billion deal with Turkey to develop two power plants. Ex-Im Bank provided $285 million in financing. The Overseas Private Investment Council(OPIC)covered insurance costs.

* August 1994, Enron made a deal to build a power plant in India. ExIm provides major financing and OPIC provides an additional $100 million.

* November 1994, Enron made a deal to build a $130 million power plant in China. Ex-Im Bank again provided the financing.

Moral of the story? When you're a monopoly capitalist, it doesn't matter who's in office. Republicans. Democrats. They all bribe the same.

[rdavis84]

"Whitewater involved the bilking of a US Savings & Loan, at a cost of billions to US Taxpayers and to benefit of Clinton's criminal cronies."

These two sites have a large snapshot of other WW type "deals"---

S&L Fraud

S&L Fraud 2

[Hildy]

Why doesn't someone from this Forum right an op-ed piece to the Observer? I don't know any other place that has so many facts in one place. Any takers?

[KC Burke]

There was a great book on Banking and Savings and Loan Fraud that I read some years ago. I can't recall the title right now but I do remember a great quote. An Oklahoma banker was quoted as saying, "Well I never have voted for a Democrat President, but I never lost money under one either."

[Stingray51]

One place to start untangling the Enron tale might be the moment in early 1993 when Bush appointees on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to exempt energy traders from its anti-fraud regulations. The commissioner who initiated that convenient rule-making process, following a post-election request from Enron and several similar companies, was Wendy Gramm, wife of the Texas Senator. She left the CFTC just before the actual vote and, five weeks later, joined the Enron board of directors. This was merely a coincidence, as she and her benefactors in Houston later explained. Coincidence or not, that decision pulled open the "regulatory black hole" in which Enron thrived and connived. It also represented the beginning of an unwholesome pattern that culminated earlier this year, when Enron's generosity to the Bush-Cheney campaign evidently won its executives the right to choose their own regulators in Washington. (Meanwhile, those same strutting geniuses were unloading their watered-down stock into the pension portfolios of their unfortunate employees.)

From everthing I've read, Enron's trading operations were profitable and there was nothing fraudulent about them. So it seems to me that there is no connection between CFTC anti-fraud rules and the collapse of Enron. The company went under due to a loss of credit brought on by its lousy hard asset investments and by its off-the-books transactions.

More importantly, the Clintons were partners in Whitewater, which is a heck of a lot different than Bush receiving campaign contributions from Enron. There should be a mega-barf alert on this.

[SuziQ]

You'll have to imagine, at least for now, because the Vice President and his cronies aren't talking-and because nobody in the media is even asking.

Maybe the media isn't asking because there's nothing to ask. As far as I can tell, George W. never had any personal stake (except maybe stock ownership like millions of others) in the Enron Corp. as x42 did with McDougall and Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. And I don't believe Laura ever represented Enron in legal proceedings as #97 did for Madison while she was employed by the Rose Law Firm. And the fact that there have been several indictments and convictions of persons involved in 'Whitewater', must mean there was 'something there' unlike Joe seems to think.

The story of Enron was one of those high flyers in the stock market; nothing political as far as I can tell. There are many stockholders, some even in Dubya's administration, whose stock portfolios are a little lighter today because of the collapse of Enron. This has nothing to do personally with George W. Bush, though Joe Conason and the other x42 a$$ kissers would like to paint it otherwise so as to try to make their guy look better. Tough luck, Joe. Nothing can make x42 and his squat, grasping wife look good, or even ok.

[Lancey Howard]

LOL!!!
I saw the headline and I thought it was about how the liberal butt-wipes who criticized the Whitewater investigation as a wild goose chase don't care to criticize all these inane Enron allegations! Hilarious post! Good to see Conason is still around for comic relief. I just figured he was off somewhere opening limo doors for Clinton.