Clinton Link With Enron Lowers The Heat On Bush

Independent (UK) ^ | 1-13-2002 | Rupert Cornwell

[blam]

Clinton link with Enron lowers the heat on Bush

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
13 January 2002

The Democrats were dragged into the growing Enron scandal yesterday as it emerged that Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, contacted a top official at his old department to find out if the Bush administration could step in to help the energy group.

Mr Rubin made his call last November to Peter Fisher, head of the Treasury's domestic finance section, in his current capacity as chairman of Citigroup, one of the main creditors of Enron. A month later the company went bankrupt in the biggest financial collapse in modern US history.

Mr Rubin was one of the most admired members of the Clinton team, and his involvement will dent Democratic efforts to turn the affair into a new Whitewater. "This could be a flu shot for Bush," one observer said. "This could inoculate him from the worst of the scandal."

The debacle of what was once the seventh largest US corporation has caused great embarrassment for the White House because of the close ties of Enron's chief, Kenneth Lay, with President George Bush.

Since 1994, the company donated almost $600,000 (£430,000) to the president's various campaigns, and helped to cover the costs of both the recount battle and his inauguration gala. In return the company has had a major influence on the Bush energy strategy, successfully pressing for greater deregulation.

But though three quarters of Enron's $5.8m of political donations since 1990 went to Republicans, Democrats too were beneficiaries. The investment paid off when Congress exempted Enron's key energy trading activities from a bill overhauling federal oversight of commodity markets.

In his call to the Treasury, Mr Rubin asked Mr Fisher about the possibility of pressing the bond-rating agencies not to lower their estimate of Enron bonds – and thus provoke a crisis of confidence in the group. According to the Treasury Department yesterday, Mr Fisher opposed the idea. Subsequently, agencies did indeed slash their assessment of Enron's creditworthiness, triggering its demise.

The latest disclosure capped three days of turmoil. First, details emerged of numerous calls by Mr Lay to senior Bush officials last autumn, telling them of Enron's growing problems. Hours later John Ashcroft, Attorney General and thus head of the Justice Department, which is now conducting a criminal probe of Enron, formally took himself out of the case, admitting he had taken $60,000 of Enron donations in his failed 2000 campaign to retain his Senate seat.

But the biggest bombshell was the confession by the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, which audits Enron, that it had destroyed many documents relating to the audit. Andersen was already under fierce criticism for failing to detect the private partnerships into which Enron executives had shunted millions of dollars of debt to keep them off the main balance sheet.

[Miss Marple]

I sent you an e-mail.

[PhiKapMom]

And while he was brokering a deal between Congress and the White House, he was also, according to the New York Times account, negotiating his own deal with Citigroup. A few days after the banking deal was finalized, Citigroup announced it was hiring Rubin as a de facto co-chair of the corporation.

From the article you linked! This smells! Rubin seems to have a huge lack of ethics! If Freepers can find all this information, where are members of the press? Are they braindead?

[OK]

"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."

The Treasury Department suddenly dropped the 30 year bond on October 31, 5 days later. Enquiring minds would like to know if Ken Lay was one of the people tipped off in advance on this, which would have given him a golden opportunity to make a quick trading windfall...

[deport]

Sanford I. Weill
	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup Inc.

[PhiKapMom]

See post #18, Rubin is a director which means he is taking orders from the CEO!

[desertcry]

I pray to god that you are right in your estimation, but as a realist, I also know that if a lie is repeated often enough, by enough people, it can become the thruth, sort of. There are of course many of us, who will be forever immune to this assault of the thruth, because we understand, and know the media's agenda. Unfortunately we are the minority. The culture of America is changing, and I'm afraid not for the better, at least before 9/11. But perhaps, because of 9/11 the culture could undergo a revival. But then again, I could be wistling in the dark.

[Dog]

You have freep mail!

[Kath]

>>>>>I told someone earlier today that we need to start a thread asking LIEberman to recuse himself and have freepers flood his office and the national press corps with that request!>>>>>

I agreee with this. If Ashcroft can't investigate this because of accepting funds from Enron, then why can Lieberman investigate it when he accepted donations to his campaign???

[PhiKapMom]

We hope to have something up tomorrow targeting LIEberman asking him to recuse himself. If Ashcroft can do it, so can he! But then Ashcroft is honorable!

[GOPJ]

Bush didn't do anything wrong and they know it. It's just rumors they pass on... It would be like if I said Kennedy is not a proven sex offender. Then gave stats on sex offenders, then ended with another statement that Kennedy has not been proven to be a sex offender. It's a way to slap Bush and hurt him with nothing. The press isn't giving their credibility away, they're throwing it away. If you want to know what a real double standard is, think how this would be handled if Clinton had done something like what they allege Bush "might" have thought about doing .... Oh, I forgot, Clinton did. And the Media didn't give a hoot. Two standards. No integrity.

"Don't hold your breath! The RATS talking points are out and THEY will continue to attack, blame and if possible find a way to incriminate Mr. Bush."

[GOPJ]

Bush didn't do anything wrong and they know it. It's just rumors they pass on... It would be like if I said Kennedy is not a proven sex offender. Then gave stats on sex offenders, then ended with another statement that Kennedy has not been proven to be a sex offender. It's a way to slap Bush and hurt him with nothing. The press isn't giving their credibility away, they're throwing it away. If you want to know what a real double standard is, think how this would be handled if Clinton had done something like what they allege Bush "might" have thought about doing .... Oh, I forgot, Clinton did. And the Media didn't give a hoot. Two standards. No integrity.

"Don't hold your breath! The RATS talking points are out and THEY will continue to attack, blame and if possible find a way to incriminate Mr. Bush."

[GOPJ]

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