Posted on 01/14/2002 12:03:50 AM PST by kattracks
News and political dispatches from around the nation.
Friends of Enron
"Here's a question: Who received more money in political contributions from Enron, conservative Republican Rep. Dick Armey or liberal Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee?" Byron York writes at www.nationalreview.com.
"The answer is Lee, who, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of Enron's contributions from 1989 to 2001, received $38,000 from Enron — compared to $5,550 for Armey," Mr. York said.
"Another question: Who received more from Enron in the Senate, conservative Republican Jon Kyl or liberal Democrat Charles Schumer? The answer, according to the Center, is Schumer, who received $21,933, compared to $2,450 for Kyl.
"Now, it is clear that, overall, Enron gave more money to Republicans than Democrats — according to the Center, the company gave 73 percent of its contributions to the GOP from 1989 to 2001, versus 27 percent for Democrats. And Enron certainly was a major supporter of George W. Bush (although it also contributed to the Al Gore and Bill Clinton presidential campaigns). But the examples from Congress suggest that the Enron story might be too complex for Democrats to cast as a purely partisan matter.
"In the House for example, six of the top 10 recipients of contributions from Enron are Democrats: Lee, Ken Bentsen, Martin Frost, Charles Stenholm, Chet Edwards, all of Texas, plus John Dingell of Michigan. In the Senate, there are just two Democrats in the top 10, Schumer of New York and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. However, the top 20 Senate recipients also include none other than Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who received $6,000 from the company."
Friends of Enron II
"On July 5, 1995, Enron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant," David Brooks writes in the Weekly Standard.
"Enron, then a growing giant in energy trading, practically had a reserved seat on Clinton administration trade junkets. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who egregiously linked political donations to government assistance, accompanied Enron Chairman Ken Lay on a mission to India. Enron President Joseph Sutton was on the trip to Bosnia during which Brown lost his life in a plane crash (Sutton was not on Brown's plane at the time). After Brown's death, Enron's Terence Thorn, a $1,000 donor to the Clinton-Gore campaign, traveled with Commerce Secretary William Daley to South Africa. Ken Lay also traveled with Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary on her trade trips."
Mr. Brooks added: "All told, Enron received over $4 billion from [the federal Overseas Private Investment Corp.] and the Export-Import Bank for projects in Turkey, Bolivia, China, the Philippines, and elsewhere" during the Clinton administration.
Jackson 'washed up'
"Just days before the opening of Jesse Jackson's annual Wall Street Project Conference in New York City, longtime friends, former business associates and Wall Street observers say Jackson's financial empire appears to be headed for collapse," reporter Marc Morano writes at www.CNSNews.com.
"Dogged by a loss of political clout, personal scandal and concerns by some Wall Street professionals that Jackson has come across as 'anti-American' following the September 11 attacks, the civil rights activist's influence is diminishing in the eyes of more people in the business and civil rights community," Mr. Morano said.
"Jackson's empire has shrunk from more than 100 employees at the beginning of 2001 to fewer than 50 in 2002, according to one of Jackson's former business associates, who asked not to be identified.
"The latest round of employee downsizing at Jackson's three principal organizations — Rainbow/PUSH, the Wall Street Project and Citizenship Education Fund — happened in December, shortly after Jackson's star-studded birthday party . . .
"According to sources close to Jackson, the fund-raiser did not meet expectations and Jackson laid off an additional 17 employees in December. 'He's basically washed up,' said a Wall Street banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Mr. Jackson.
"'His money is drying up, the Wall Street Project is tanking. He is reeling,' the banker said."
How convenient
"Homelessness — one of the media's favorite tools to portray the alleged downside of Ronald Reagan's '80s prosperity — was a more serious national problem during Bill Clinton's 1990s," the Media Research Center's Elizabeth J. Swasey writes.
"Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless admitted as much on [Wednesday] night's 'Hannity and Colmes' on the Fox News Channel: 'Definitely, we saw more homelessness in the 1990s than we did in the 1980s.'
"But we saw far less homelessness on TV sets during the Clinton years. The MRC did the math: During the first Bush administration, morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN ran an average of 53 stories on homelessness annually, compared to less than 17 per year during the Clinton administration," the writer said.
"The soon-to-be No. 1 New York Times bestseller, Bernard Goldberg's 'Bias,' devotes an entire chapter to the media's indulgence in advocacy journalism on this topic. In it, Goldberg cited a 1999 column by the Providence Journal's Philip Terzian, formerly of the Carter administration, that showed the New York Times ran 50 stories on homelessness in 1988, including five on page one, but in 1998 ran only 10 — not one on page one.
"The expanding homeless population was out of sight during the Clinton years but just three short weeks after George W. Bush assumed office, ABC won the race to be the first network to rediscover the homeless: On Sunday, Feb. 11, 2001, 'World News Tonight' Sunday anchor Carole Simpson intoned: 'Homelessness, which is estimated to affect from 21/2 to 31/2 million people, is again on the rise.'
"How convenient."
Lee seeks apology
Los Alamos nuclear-weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee, who as a suspected spy was thrown into solitary confinement for more than a year, wants an apology from the president of the United States.
"I think I should get a pardon from the president," Mr. Lee told Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff. "I think the government owes me an apology."
However, Newsweek said that might be difficult. "In his deal with the government, Lee [pleaded] guilty to one felony count, admitting he'd downloaded a trove of classified nuclear data onto portable tapes and then stored them on a vulnerable, unclassified computer," the magazine said. "When investigators were closing in on him in December 1998, Lee hastily erased the data from the unclassified computer. The classified tapes were never found. Lee contends he tossed them in a dumpster."
Mr. Lee claims he made the tapes to guard against losing his work in a computer crash.
Mr. Lee has written a book, "My Country Versus Me," which is being excerpted by Newsweek in its latest issue.
Feingold's road show
"Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Jot that name down. You're going to be hearing a lot about him," Paul Bedard writes in U.S. News & World Report.
"The reason: He's one of the Democrats testing the presidential-primary waters for 2004," Mr. Bedard said. "Just last week, our spies caught him wooing Florida Democrats in Miami, Daytona, Orlando, and Volusia County. He talked mostly about election reform, his pet issue, but also about health care and the successes of the anti-terror war. The crowds, we're told, loved him."
Keyes' talk show
"Former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes is the latest politico to jump into the media talk wars," United Press International reports. "Keyes, who also served with ambassadorial rank at the United Nations during the Reagan administration, has signed on with cable's MSNBC to anchor a new program in the 10 p.m. slot. MSNBC President Erik Sorenson hopes that the 'right-leaning libertarian' will give the network powerhouse a running start against a rumored Fox News Channel program hosted by recent CNN-defector Greta Van Susteren," the wire service said in its "Capital Comment" column.Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or by e-mail: gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
Far be it for me to take satisfaction or pleasure in the misfortunes of another.
(Tee hee!)
How much did Enron contribute to the Clinton legal defence funds?
How much did Enron contribute to The Clinton Library Fund?
These figures don't show as campaign contributions. I saw an entry on opensecrets.org that Enron gave $25,000 to the clinton legal defense fund. When I went back to try and do a highlight and copy I couldn't get to it. I kept getting a 'no data available' message.
I believe it's called shadenfraude(sp? -- I don't speak German). Whatever it is, count me in double.
We'll just bring out of mothballs his famous debate with Rick Santorum in 1996 re: partial birth abortion. In that, Feingold said "it's a matter between a woman and her doctor" re: whether the baby lives or dies if the full term "fetus" accidentally is delivered before the doctor can scramble its brains. (Deleted from the official Congressional Record by Feingold afterwards, this is documented in C-Span transcripts).
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