Rubin Asked Treasury About Aid to Enron

The Washington Post ^ | January 12, 2002 | Dana Milbank and Susan Schmidt

[Timesink]

Former Clinton Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin telephoned a top Treasury official last fall to explore whether the Bush administration could intervene on behalf of Enron Corp. as the giant energy company neared collapse, officials said yesterday.

Rubin, chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup, one of Enron's main creditors, called Peter Fisher, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, and asked "what he thought of the idea" of calling bond-rating agencies to help forestall a crippling reduction in Enron's credit rating, according to a statement released by the Treasury Department.

[Timesink]

Full story available here. This was on the front page of today's Post.

I know a couple other news outlets' stories on this have been posted already; I don't care. This info needs to be seen by as many Freepers as possible.

[John W]

I submitted the relevant paragraphs of the story to the nostrilitis tip line.

[Timesink]

I submitted the relevant paragraphs of the story to the nostrilitis tip line.

The Waxbastard?

[Cicero]

IMHO it's VERY important that the Washington Post would front-page this news. It must mean that they are backing away from the one-sided attempt to blame it all on Bush. The media hasn't hesitated to bury news of equal importance so only visitors to places like FreeRepublic would see it. Front-paging it in the Washington Post seems to me a sign that they may have already given up the campaign against Bush--which frankly astonishes me.

And this is not a rehash of an AP or Reuters story. It's given a WashPost byline.

[OldFriend]

Well leave it to Chris Shays who believed slick willie was a rapist but thought he ought not be impeached to turn against Vice President Cheney. The man makes me sick!!!!

Further, did we hear anyone complaining that the 401Ks of Microsoft employees was being decimated while slick went after Gates?

[YaYa123]

If I'm not mistaken, Rubin was standing behind Daschle last week when he made his speech that was so ill-received by almost everyone, including democrats.

Rubin is one of the Wall Street wizards who either did not see ENRON imploding, or saw it, and chose to do nothing.

[DonQ]

What is surprising about this story is the Treasury said No to Enron's demand. Only months earlier Enron had succeeded in getting the chairman of an energy regulatory commission bounced because he wouldn't do their bidding. So the Treasury had guts to stand up to them (maybe whoever it was in Treasury knew that Enron was on the skids).

[cayman99]

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Enron Corp.'s (NYSE:ENE - news) Chairman Kenneth Lay telephoned Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Oct. 26, a Fed spokesman confirmed on Friday.......(END)...

Ken Lay was all over Peter Fisher according to published reports.

Peter Fisher announced on October 31 that the 30 yr. Treasury bond would be eliminated. The 30 yr. soared in price. Those in the know made a quick killing. It is public knowledge this news was leaked in advance of the announcement. What do you think the odds are that Ken Lay was let in on this freebee money gift? I hope Congress check's out Enron's bond trading activities right around Halloween.

J.P. Morgan Chase is heavily involved with Enron. Morgan has a 23 trillion dollar interest rate derivative position on their books. LTCM blew up because of derivatives. It appears Enron did too. Could Morgan be next? Was the U.S. Treasury's long bond decision a maneuver to keep Morgan's derivative book from evaporating. After all, Morgan, O'Neill, Fisher and Greenspan knew that Enron was going down and going down BIG.

[hchutch]

Not just Microsoft employees, *MY* 401(k) took a hit! Everyone's 401(k) probably has Microsoft stock, directly or indirectly.

No concern from the Demcorats there. Then again, Gates didn't pay his tribute to the DNC...

[OldFriend]

I had no investment in Microsoft and our pension is about 1/4 of it's previous worth.....ditto for my kids' portfolios.....sadly I was handling their investments for them......

It is beginning to look as if Greenspan kept everything propped up for the sake of slick willie and when the end of his term was close, he pulled the plug and instends to keep the market down. Raising interest rates while energy costs were skyrocketing was a sure fire prescription for disaster.....

[section9]

Not just Microsoft employees, *MY* 401(k) took a hit! Everyone's 401(k) probably has Microsoft stock, directly or indirectly.

No concern from the Demcorats there. Then again, Gates didn't pay his tribute to the DNC...

Well now, no one could ever prove anything about the Clintons and their gang. That was the genius of the whole operation. Think of the Clinton Administration as a mob protection racket. You gave money to Clinton, you got to send your classified satellites to China. You moved money around for Clinton? You might have access to the construction of oil lines in Central Asia (I think the was Roger Tamraz' gig).

But if you didn't pay protection?

Justice came down on Bill Gates as an object lesson to other contributors. Sure Bill Gates was a monopolistic s.o.b., but had he dropped a couple of million dollars at the DNC through PAC cutouts and made Clinton aware of what he was doing, Justice NEVER WOULD HAVE TOUCHED HIM.

Bill Gates should have paid protection, that's all.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Sunshine55]

!ping

[doug from upland]

Along with helping Waxman get to the truth, we may be able to be of assistance to the WASHINGTON POST. These writers might have been assigned this story, but we probably know much more than they do.

During the Clinton years, I think Schmidt might have been one of the writers on their Whitewater team. Perhaps I'm confusing this with the NY TIMES Whitewater team, but I don't think so. I had written a piece on FR regarding the fact that the so-called Whitewater team did not even know who Jerry Parks was. That was incredible. Parks had loads of damaging info on Clinton. On the day he was killed, documents were removed from his home. Let's use our research abilities and maybe we indeed can help the POST take this story in the right direction --- the real truth.

[Timesink]

No concern from the Demcorats there. Then again, Gates didn't pay his tribute to the DNC...

Oh really?

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		3/10/1999	$10,000	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		5/5/1999	$25,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		5/6/1999	$15,000	DNC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		6/30/1999	$15,000	DNC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		7/29/1999	$10,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		9/23/1999	$10,000	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		10/20/1999	$10,000	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		12/16/1999	$10,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		12/17/1999	$15,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		12/31/1999	$32,500	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		1/6/2000	$35,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		3/31/2000	$55,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		4/12/2000	$5,000	RNC/Cmte to Preserve Eisenhower Ctr
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		6/16/2000	$25,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		6/27/2000	$100,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		6/30/2000	$5,000	Ashcroft Victory Cmte Non-Federal
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		10/13/2000	$20,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT REDMOND, WA 98052		10/13/2000	$25,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT WASHINGTON, DC 20036		7/29/1999	$5,000	DNC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT WASHINGTON, DC 20036		8/31/1999	$15,000	DNC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT WASHINGTON, DC 20036		12/31/1999	$45,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT WASHINGTON, DC 20036		8/10/2000	$15,000	DNC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		5/17/1999	$60,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		8/17/1999	$25,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		6/7/2000	$321	National Abortion Rights Action League
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		9/14/2000	$5,831	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		10/26/2000	$25,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP REDMOND, WA 98052		10/26/2000	$25,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP WASHINGTON, DC 20036		6/28/2000	$30,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP WASHINGTON, DC 20036		7/11/2000	$200	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORP WASHINGTON, DC 20036		8/11/2000	$50,000	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, VA 98073		2/26/1999	$50,000	DSCC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		7/26/1999	$30,000	1999 Republican S/H Dinner Trust Non-Fed
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		9/13/1999	$5,000	DSCC/Non-Federal Mixed
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		10/26/1999	$50,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		11/3/1999	$25,000	DSCC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		12/31/1999	$500	DSCC/Non-Federal Mixed
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		12/31/1999	$5,000	Ashcroft Victory Cmte Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		2/16/2000	$40,000	RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		2/29/2000	$10,000	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		3/30/2000	$56,542	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/4/2000	$30,000	2000 Republican H/S Dinner Trust Non-Fed
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/11/2000	$33,690	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/11/2000	$51,832	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/17/2000	$15,000	DCCC/Non-Federal Account 1
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/17/2000	$40,000	DSCC/Non-Federal Corporate
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/21/2000	$453	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		4/21/2000	$698	NRSC/Non-Federal
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		5/24/2000	$8,985	2000 Republican H/S Dinner Trust Non-Fed
MICROSOFT CORPORATION REDMOND, WA 98052		6/8/2000	$250	DSCC/Non-Federal Mixed

And that's just the first half of the table.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks for posting this article. Rubin and Daschle both look fishy here, IMHO.

Rush said today that Rubin was Daschle's advisor in the Senate on the tax cut smear speech. That bombed, but a few days later Enron coincidentally surfaces as a "scandal." Daschle's in Uzbekistan.

Rubin's with Citigroup, Enron's biggest creditor I read. Wouldn't he know the state of Enron's finances in advance? Wouldn't Rubin and Daschle both know the effect of pulling the energy bill on our energy companies? Wouldn't they know the effect of Enron's demise on our economy? They both certainly knew that the Dems. were not polling well re. election 2002. When did the scheming begin, with Jeffords jump?

Enron and the Clintonites
Enron - What's Going On?, Neil Boortz's 60-sec. summary. FR thread.
Dingell: I'll grill Rubin on Enron
Ex-TVA director, Gore friend got large sums to aid Enron
Mozambique: Enron Files for Bankruptcy , Clinton and co.

Then we can assist Henry in his fishing expedition-
Waxman Enron tip line. Cheers.

[pointsal]

My goodness.... I am shocked.... quick call the NY TIMES!!