[Scott from the Left Coast]

No, I don't think they should have been bailed out.

That isn't my point. My point is, that unlike so many other large companies that have been bailed out with taxpayer money with barely the blink of an eye (particularly from the press), Enron had no chance at getting such help from its "friends" in the Bush Administration. The Administration was too conscious of the "appearance" problem in conjunction with the rabid Democrat class-warfare attacks, the working families being harmed by "big business" layoffs.

While most other companies of Enron's position and size would have come calling to the government and got assistance, the Administration had to cold-shoulder Enron for political reasons.

It was Enron's misfortune to be an energy firm from Texas that had input in Cheney's energy policy deliberations. If they hadn't been all those things they'd have gotten a bailout -- even though they were rotten businessmen.

[Torie]

Enron was in worse shape than LTCM actually. LTCM had a liquidity problem. In any event, Fisher, who was involved with protecting the markets from the LTCM affair, believed that that concern did not obtain with Enron. That is what the news stories say. It was a policy matter, not a political matter it appears. And, although I am skeptical, the spin from the administration is that Bush was out of the loop.