Kenneth Lay: I've been a strong financial and political supporter of, first, President Bush Sr. when he was running for president, and even when he ran for president a time or two and failed. And then certainly when he ran for president and was elected in 1988. [I'm] very close to the family, to Barbara Bush and the kids.
When Governor Bush--now President Bush--decided to run for the governor's spot, [there was] a little difficult situation--I 'd worked very closely with Ann Richards also, the four years she was governor. But I was very close to George W. and had a lot of respect for him, had watched him over the years, particularly with reference to dealing with his father when his father was in the White House and some of the things he did to work for his father, and so did support him.
...I think you need to keep in mind also, for better or for worse, we had a lot of access in the Clinton administration. Certainly [former Secretary of Energy Bill] Richardson called on me and Enron on a number of occasions to at least discuss different energy matters, [I] was asked a few times even by then-Chief of Staff Mack McLarty about various energy matters, and [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin on other matters. As a major energy company in the country doing a lot of international business too, we have a lot of reason to, in fact, talk with different officials in our government just like they have many reasons to talk with us."
Lay quietly exits Compaq's board
Attorney General John Ashcroft Recuses Himself From Enron Investigation
Enron collapse likened to Whitewater for Bush
Treasury Rebuffed Enron's Pleas
Enron sought government help to extend credit
From Wall Street to the White House:
The fallout from Enron's demise
Pinnacle Towers in Sarasota,Florida was another that has been mentioned with Enron in news articles, for pulling a variation of the Enron scam,I have documents on Pinnacle that were obtained with a subpoena and it ain't a pretty sight.
As our elected and appointed officials know very well there is no downside to corruption,fraud or chicanery at the public expense if you have the appropriate political connections in Washington D.C. at the federal,state, and local levels.
At this level of play, involving billions of dollars our elected and appointed officials, both Democrat and Republican were clamoring all over this for a windfall of political dollars prior to bankruptcy.
Rule of thumb, if any scam in the U.S. can be used to reap enough political benefit for either party you can buy enough political clout to contravene both the "Rule of Law" and the Constitution.
The simple solution of recovering a large portion of this money could be obtained by bringing alleged federal racketeering charges against all the deep pockets at Enron, the CEO's,accountants, and their legal counsel under the theory of recovering treble damages.
Obviously this will never happen in the world of U.S. politics.
We have become a nation that is unable to elect or appoint leaders that are willing to be held accountable for their personal conduct or put ethics & integrity, before political and/or personal agendas.
Borrowing one of your phrases witness the "Fall of the Republic"
Pardon me for being redundant,but,you already knew all of this from your investigative research.
come look at this do-do.