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.

[isthisnickcool]

Hey, maybe JW can start looking into the business practices of bogus "noprofit" corporations that raise a lot of money then spend very little of it on what they said they were going to. Some of these outfits surround themselves with lavish offices and pay themselves a lot of money.

Yep! We need nonprofit corp. reform in America to stop these people from enriching themselves or pushing their own little political agendas. And JW is perfect to lead the way since they really understand this kind of thing.

[WriteOn]

Actually, a liberal's take on this might be that the conservatives are trying to whitewash themselves. Larry ought to let Waxman do his thing. It'll look better if the Democrats can't find anything than if Klayman can't find anything.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

The US energy industry should be flourishing right now. We wanted the energy bill, most of America understands our need for more energy independence. Enron was criminally negligent with their books, but of course they'd support Republicans and George W. Bush over the Democrats...any smart energy company would. Any smart American would after Clinton's closing off Utah's clean coal for Riady, last minute EO to keep ANWR's oil away from a Republican administration, Gore oil dollars at the expense of our naval reserves, EPA regulations under Carol Browner requiring crazy and expensive standards resulting in massive refinery closings and not construction.

When anthrax became a threat, the pharmaceutical industry stocks went up. After 9-11, security firms flourished. Because of recent computer viruses, Norton and McAfree stocks are soaring.

Where there's need and a promising future, people invest. When Americans finally elected a President who understood the energy needs of the country, energy companies and Americans had every reason to invest in the industry. It should have been a sure thing.

Then Daschle tanked the energy bill. Enron filed for bankruptcy. When did Daschle make this highly unpopular and dangerous decision? Would Daschle kill our hopes of exploring, refining and supplying our own energy needs for this year in order to destroy the big Texas oil companies, as payback for smaller Dem. donations or the usual Dem. extortion and to hurt the Bush administration? Makes more sense than anything the media and dirty Dems. are peddling, IMHO.

[Howlin]

Everybody that THIS surprises, please raise your hand!

[Howlin]

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."

When this blows up in their face, Tom and Larry will finally be shown for the fools that they are.

[gaspar]

Klayman is the male Arianna Huffington.

[bayourod]

The fundraising scams probably bring in a lot of the money, but somewhere there is a deep pocket or two whose six-figure contributions determine the focus of JW.

Possibly the same sugar daddy as NewsMax.com and the NPOs of some of the vanity candidates.

[Howlin]

This is about how the "assets" of Enron were being used by the U.S. Government.

Explain, please. And be sure and explain EXACTLY how Bush is involved.

[Howlin]

and a CNN story.

Let's see the CNN story. Post it right here.

[deport]

...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.

They can't even get their spin correctly. Enron doesn't own the baseball stadium even though the did put up or agreed to a $100 million fee. The stadium is owned by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority as far as I know and is leased to the Houston McLane Company, Inc. DBA Houston Astros Baseball Club.....

Now Brown and Root was the General Contractor and is a subsidary of Haliburton. Guess they wanted Houston to use a non local company.... sheesh.

[Howlin]

Larry Klayman is to conservatives as Pee Wee Herman is to wholesome children's television.

Oh, I want you to sit down for this one: guess who was on Crossfire tonight, dogging Bush about CORRUPTION.........I almost fainted!

Tony Coelho! Can you believe that?

[Howlin]

The administration's energy policy has done wonders for Mr. Lay, who will now never be in the business again

ROFLMAO. Right.........and just LOOK what influence peddling gets you at the Bush White House: BANKRUPTCY!!!!

[cricket]

. . .bump for #19. . .

[poet]

If the Admin is involved or knew beforehand what was going to happen and conservatives become the whore apologists like the clinton traitors, then consevatives are no better than the people we complain about.

I'll withhold judgement, but, if the Admin was involved, they MUST be held accountable. Please Mr. Bush, NO COVER-UPS on this one. Give it the light of day and get it off the liberal attack agenda.

[eaglebeak]

Tom and Larry aren't the only ones demanding an investigation. This is just the beginning. Bush and Cheney have quite a history regarding Enron, as do others in the administration. If you haven't read this history before (and I don't just mean you, Howlin, but everyone), it's time to do so. We need to check things out before we judge and blame.

[sinkspur]

Tony Coelho! Can you believe that?

I saw that. Tony Coelho, who resigned from Congress one step ahead of the sheriff for quid pro quos in his role as Majority Whip.

Then, as head of Gore's campaign, he had to quit when it was revealed he was taking money under the table as part of an Olympic Committee in Europe.

And who was Coelho speaking for?

THE LITTLE GUY!!

I can't believe some Democrat hasn't ripped this guy's vocal chords out so he can never embarrass them again.

[sinkspur]

I'll withhold judgement, but, if the Admin was involved, they MUST be held accountable.

Involved in what?

NOT helping its largest campaign contributor who was in the process of self-destructing?

You're listening to too much CNN.

Ask yourself one question:

If Enron's campaign contributions bought something, what did they buy?

[Deb]

Coelho, having been up all night with Bob Shrum, even had a new allegation, that O'Neil and Evans should have acted on behalf of Enron, in order to save the poor employees' investments. Realizing there was no action, which means no crime, which means no scandal, which means no rat votes, the Democrats are now going to attack Bush for his lack of compassion for the little guy by not aiding their parent company.

These really are the most evil people on Earth.

[Howlin]

My husband said that he would have broken off that finger he was pointing with and stuffed it down his throat!

He was VERY rightous, wasn't he?