Conservatives (Judicial Watch) turn on Bush over Enron

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 01/12/2002 | Ben Fenton

[Pokey78]

THE White House response to the collapse of Enron, a Texas-based energy company with strong links to the Bush administration, has "shades of Bill Clinton", a conservative watchdog said yesterday.

Judicial Watch, a legal group that pressed Mr Clinton in the latter years of his presidency by investigating every aspect of his personal and professional life, called for a special counsel to investigate the Enron case.

Tom Fitton, the group's president, said: "The White House has a nice little scandal on its hands with Enron and they have only themselves to blame. Their reaction certainly has shades of Bill Clinton." The criticism is an indication of the potential risks of the Enron controversy.

Judicial Watch would normally support a conservative president such as Mr Bush. Enron applied for bankruptcy protection last November after overstating its profits by more than £400 million by hiding huge debts in the accounts of subsidiaries.

Its board is being investigated over allegations that 29 current or former members sold their shares for a total of £785 million in the months before the collapse. Thousands lost jobs and money when the Enron share price collapsed from almost £65 to only a few pence in less than a year.

The Houston-based company has close links to the Bush White House. Kenneth Lay, its chairman, is a friend of both President Bush and his father and was one of the principal fundraisers for the Bush-Cheney election campaign in 1999-2000.

Dick Cheney, the vice-president, had close contacts with Mr Lay when Halliburton, another Houston-based energy company of which he was formerly chief executive, built a baseball stadium for Enron.

Two senior members of the administration, Larry Lindsey, the President's chief economic adviser, and Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, worked as consultants with Enron before Mr Bush recruited them.

The White House said on Thursday that Mr Lay called on Paul O'Neill, the treasury secretary, and Don Evans, the commerce secretary, to help the company in the days before it collapsed, but added that they had turned him down, despite his close links to the president and his party.

But Mr Fitton yesterday called on the White House to be more open. "Conservatives are very uncomfortable about the relations between the Bush White House and Enron and I doubt you will see many coming forward to defend the conduct, at least so far."

He was particularly critical of Mr Cheney's efforts to prevent the release of the minutes of meetings he and his staff held with Mr Lay and other Enron executives in the process of formulating the administration's energy policy.

[Deb]

The employee's frozen stocks had nothing to do with the company. They were frozen because of government regulations relating to the retirement plan restructuring going on. And they were only frozen for a couple of weeks.

[Howlin]

I've been reading your posts today; thanks! My mother somehow did not pass me the finance/economic/business gene; you're made a lot of things easy for me to understand. Please keep it up.

[hopespringseternal]

Dick Cheney, the vice-president, had close contacts with Mr Lay when Halliburton, another Houston-based energy company of which he was formerly chief executive, built a baseball stadium for Enron.

The idiot who penned this statement should have Enron field shoved up his nether regions.

Klayman and Judicial Watch deserve to be labeled nuisance litigators and ignored by the courts.

[Torie]

And they were only frozen for a couple of weeks.

Was it six weeks, actually? I think that is what a partner at Foley in Milwaukee just said on Fox News. He said that was a rather LONG period. So many questions; so few answers.

[Dianna]

Ok, so why isn't he slamming Phil Gramm?

Phil Who? The Phil Gramm whose wife was on the board of Enron when Gramm tried to get some "Enron friendly" legislation on the books.

Now, I happen to like Mr "get out and help us pull this wagon" Gramm. And I couldn't tell you 2 things about this legislation he wanted passed. But if Larry Klayman were so all fired up about corruption, he'd be screaming this story from the roof tops.

In this case at least there are questions that reasonable people might want answered.

[Howlin]

Can you possibly name me a special counsel that was appointed that didn't NAME a high level government employee as its target?

And if so, who would THIS special counsel be going after? (Be sure to provide the ROCK SOLID proof you have to back up the name, please.)

[Howlin]

For some reason, which I do not know/understand, there is some disagreement about how LONG the accounts were frozen, and I believe different kinds might have been "locked" at different times for different durations.

I do know that at the beginning of January of 2001, the stock was valued at $82.00, and on the day the "locked" it, it was $13.00. I believe I would have had the sense to get out before then.

[sinkspur]

When has Klayman ever "rooted out corruption"?

He's a mass mailer who capitalizes on whatever's in the news.

Notice how quickly he jumped on the Enron bandwagon?

This clown sued his own mother. He's a money-grubbing charlatan.

He's obviously got you suckered.

[eaglebeak]

Do not fear. Many people feel the same way you do. I didn't mind the education bill as it was a good bipartisan effort. . .but Dubya is not good with money, that much I have learned from reading about his history. I am not affiliated with either party. The religious right pretty much cancelled me out of the Republican party, and since I'm a Christian of an older kind--who does not wear her heart on her sleeve so to speak-- I sort of feel like wearing my cross necklace underneath my clothing! So I vote according to my conscience, though I haven't voted for a Republican in years. Reagan cured both my mother and me of that.

[Howlin]

Thanks for dropping by and sharing.

[Dianna]

Howlin I have agreed with everything I have read from you on this subject. But there is one thing I think we ought to refrain from.

Several people are demanding solid proof as a standard to be able to make an allegation.

Without more info, that isn't possible. All I ask is some reasonable facimile of logic. And campaign cash+ illegal influence will never equal bankruptcy.

[Dianna]

Ronald Reagan so disappointed you, as a conservative, that you haven't voted Republican since?

IF this is true, good luck in your pie in the sky existance. Mere mortals can do nothing to please you.

[Buckeroo]

Our President accumulated more money than any president (before him) for his campaign to the tune of 1/4 billion dollars. And still folks out there can't get a connection to reality.

[Deb]

Steve Cramer said three weeks, but he's nuts so who knows. It will probably turn out that the company employed every stalling tactic in the books hoping they could arrange either a sale, an influx of the bucks California owes it or a bailout. None materialized, so they rolled the dice and lost.

I guess we'll see.

[Torie]

I agree with your comments completely. This was a time buying scheme. It didn't work out. And the play will cost some dearly. But it appears not the administration. Thus the sequey to populist demogoguery by Waxman et al. That is a leading indicator if there ever was one.

[Torie]

Another one of those Buck posts. Maybe we should have a contest as to whether there is anyone who is a more predictable poster, as to quality and content and relevance.

[Buckeroo]

So show me (and others) where there is an error. I enjoy truth above all else.

[Torie]

I don't think Bush spent 250 million on his presidential campaign, but beyond that, your post was not relevant. One needs to focus on exactly what is being discussed, and then opine based on facts and reasoned analysis that is responsive to the comments of others. At least one needs to do that if one has any hope of having any impact, other than a negative one. JMO.

[x]

Gramm has some positive qualities. I can't think of any that his wife has. She was also on the board of IBP, a meatpacker. She dismissed allegations of sleazy conduct by IBP in a way that an ordinary director could get away with, but a Senator's spouse cannot. Caesar's wife must be above suspicion, etc. Call it old fashioned, but you shouldn't have both high political office and a mercenary financial attitude in the same family. Perhaps she was deceived or not legally responsible, but she is riding for a fall.