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Enron and the Clintonites
The Weekly Standard - (The Daily Standard) ^ | David Brooks

Posted on 01/12/2002 9:29:12 PM PST by oioiman

ON JULY 5, 1995, Enron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant.

Enron, then a growing giant in energy trading, practically had a reserved seat on Clinton administration trade junkets. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who egregiously linked political donations to government assistance, accompanied Enron chairman Ken Lay on a mission to India. Enron president Joseph Sutton was on the trip to Bosnia during which Brown lost his life in a plane crash (Sutton was not on Brown's plane at the time). After Brown's death, Enron's Terence Thorn, a $1,000 donor to the Clinton-Gore campaign, traveled with Commerce Secretary William Daley to South Africa. Ken Lay also traveled with Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary on her trade trips.

There were other contacts between Enron and the Clinton administration. Ken Lay was a close friend of Mack McLarty, Clinton's first chief of staff. In his 1993 disclosure statement, Robert Rubin listed Enron as one of the firms with which he had had "significant contact" while at Goldman Sachs. Enron was represented by the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, the firm where Clinton advisers Robert Strauss and Vernon Jordan worked.

And Enron benefited from its government contacts during the Clinton years. After Lay's trip to India with Ron Brown, Enron received nearly $400 million in U.S. government assistance so that it could build a power plant south of Bombay. According to reports in the Houston Chronicle at the time, the Export-Import Bank kicked in $298 million, while another federal agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, put up $100 million.

In February 1995, David Sanger of the New York Times wrote a fascinating insider account of how the deal had been consummated. Enron had been the lead bidder to build the new power plant. Jeff Garten, then undersecretary of commerce for international trade, created what he called "our economic war room" to push the American firm's interests. The State and Energy departments were enlisted to press Enron's case. According to Sanger, the U.S. ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, "constantly cajoled Indian officials." The CIA performed some risk analysis and investigated rival British companies.

Clinton himself was involved in starting the India effort for Enron. According to Michael Weisskopf of Time, Clinton scrawled a note to McLarty telling him to help with the project. Support for the Bombay power plant was just a small part of the help Enron received from the Clinton administration. All told, Enron received over $4 billion from OPIC and the Export-Import Bank for projects in Turkey, Bolivia, China, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

Under Clinton, the Commerce Department was proud that it was finally using the might of the U.S. government to assist favored firms. But the enterprise was plagued by constant criticism that somehow it always seemed to be big political donors that got most of the help. According to the Boston Globe, all but three of the recipients of OPIC aid during Brown's tenure were substantial Democratic donors. According to a study by the Center for Public Integrity, Enron, U.S. West, GTE, McDonnell Douglas, and Fluor donated a combined $563,000 to the Democratic party during 1993 and 1994 and received $2.6 billion in foreign contracts secured with government help. The Globe found that during the first Clinton term, 27 firms had donated $2.3 million to the Democrats and received nearly $5.5 billion in federal support.

All of this is not to deny that Enron was primarily a Republican donor. Nor is it to minimize the connections between Enron and the Bush administration. Rather, the connections between the Clintonites and Enron remind us that the scandal is not the donations. The scandal is what gets done by federal officials in return for the donations. And while the Clintonites received less money from Enron than the Republicans, the evidence thus far suggests that Democrats extended more favors to Enron than Republicans. That suggests that the nascent Enron scandal may not end up helping Democrats as much as they now think.

Make no mistake, though: The press corps is in full frenzy over what the Bush administration may or may not have done to help Enron as it was going down the tubes--though there is no evidence the Bush administration did anything beyond take phone calls from desperate Enron executives. But the real story here is not about lawbreaking or extraordinary behavior. It is about what has become standard practice in Washington every day.

When corporations make political donations, the money is generally not used to lobby for free market reforms--although Enron did some of that. Rather, the money is used to encourage French-style dirigisme. It is used to lure government into bed with private commercial interests. That's not an effect conservatives should cheer.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: michaeldobbs
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It is time to take a hammer to the tired arse Lib-spew that this is anything like Whitewater.


1 posted on 01/12/2002 9:29:12 PM PST by oioiman
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To: oioiman
Wow, something non-McCain-like from the Weekly Standard....bump!
2 posted on 01/12/2002 9:34:26 PM PST by rwfromkansas
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To: oioiman
Prevoiously posted here:

Enron and The Clintonites

3 posted on 01/12/2002 9:35:12 PM PST by quimby
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To: seamole;enron_list
.
4 posted on 01/12/2002 9:35:54 PM PST by KQQL
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To: oioiman
Everyone needs to send this to WAXMAN !
5 posted on 01/12/2002 9:38:40 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
Everyone needs to send this to WAXMAN !
6 posted on 01/12/2002 9:38:44 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
Everyone needs to send this to WAXMAN !
7 posted on 01/12/2002 9:38:47 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
Everyone needs to send this to WAXMAN !
8 posted on 01/12/2002 9:38:52 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
Everyone needs to send this to WAXMAN !
9 posted on 01/12/2002 9:38:56 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
What are the odds that this will make the major media??? How about we all email this to every one on capital hill? How would someone go about doing this?
10 posted on 01/12/2002 9:39:19 PM PST by Jewels1091
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To: oioiman
The collapse was Bush's fault, since he wouldn't allow the corruption to go on the Ponzi scheme finally fizzled.
11 posted on 01/12/2002 9:39:42 PM PST by big bad easter bunny
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To: oioiman
Reports are that Clinton was photographed on a golfing date with Ken Lay. Lay and Enron were also big supporters of Anne Richards, GWB's predecessor as Texas Gov. and were big supporters of (name escapes me), a liberal Texas congresswoman. Chuck Shumer, Dem.Sen. of NY got $23,000 from Lay and Enron. The Repubs. got more money, but so far, it looks like the Dems. "hoed" out more for what they got.
12 posted on 01/12/2002 9:43:11 PM PST by Diogenez
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To: Diogenez
I think the TX congresswoman may have been Sheila Jackson Lee (D) from the Houston area I think. MSNBC said last night that she received 7 times as much money as Armey.
13 posted on 01/12/2002 9:48:13 PM PST by kwyjibo
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To: kwyjibo
"Enron Is Not Our Great President Bush's Watergate So Stop Saying That!"
14 posted on 01/12/2002 9:51:49 PM PST by america-rules
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To: oioiman
"The Globe found that during the first Clinton term, 27 firms had donated $2.3 million to the Democrats and received nearly $5.5 billion in federal support."

What are the odds that this will be reported on the sunday talking head shows?

15 posted on 01/12/2002 9:54:19 PM PST by MJY1288
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To: oioiman
"Under Clinton, the Commerce Department was proud that it was finally using the might of the U.S. government to assist favored firms. But the enterprise was plagued by constant criticism that somehow it always seemed to be big political donors that got most of the help."

Well, that about sums it up!

16 posted on 01/12/2002 10:02:18 PM PST by dixiechick2000
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To: oioiman
It is time to take a hammer to the tired arse Lib-spew that this is anything like Whitewater.

It is like Whitewater to the extent of the way the fraud was allegedly carried out by Enron.

Check out Essay of the Week here

17 posted on 01/12/2002 10:02:35 PM PST by fellowpatriot
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: oioiman
bump
19 posted on 01/12/2002 10:30:02 PM PST by Outraged
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To: hogwaller
Bu, and it's a big BUT, Slick and his pals DID things for the money; Bush has NOT ! If you can prove that President Bush and his administration did do something for Enron ; post it. If not ... shut up.
20 posted on 01/12/2002 10:46:06 PM PST by nopardons
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