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Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002

Former Enron chairman and Clinton golf buddy Kenneth Lay offered a seat on the company's board in 1999 to Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and lobbied Rubin and his successor on issues affecting Enron, documents obtained today by the Associated Press show.

This is the same Robert Rubin being paid a whopping $40 million a year by Enron creditor Citigroup.

"The notes and letters," obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, "show that Lay pressed Enron's interests to Clinton administration officials," AP reported.

Lay wrote to Rubin on May 14, 1999, after Rubin announced he was leaving his post, "Given the way Enron has evolved, not only do we badly need a person with your experience and insights ... but also I think you would find serving on our board intellectually and otherwise interesting."

Though Rubin did not join the board, he joined Citigroup Inc., which lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron. He "called Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, Peter Fisher, last Nov. 8 to seek his intervention on Enron's behalf."

Lay also wrote a note that May 14 to Rubin's successor in the Clinton administration, Lawrence Summers, promising to be available "if there is anything at all I or Enron could do for you or the department."

Dropping Rubin's name in an Oct. 8, 1999 letter to Summers, Lay mentioned that he had spent time with him in China - that best friend of the Clinton administration - the previous week and that "he looked more relaxed than I have seen him in years." He also "indicated he was prompted to write by a speech by a treasury assistant general counsel, that federal regulators might be considering regulation of the huge global derivatives market that exists outside of commodities exchanges," AP said.

"Larry, hopefully the comments made by John Yetter were just a misunderstanding," Lay wrote. "I would very much appreciate receiving a call or note from you if in fact there is any reason that we should be concerned about this occurring."

AP reported: "Summers responded on Nov. 22, noting that Yetter and another treasury official, Assistant Secretary Lee Sachs, had met with several Enron executives to discuss the company's concerns and that Sachs spoke on the phone with Lay about the issue."

Monday, Feb. 11, 2002

Robert Rubin, the Dems' $40 Million Friend of Enron

Citigroup is paying Enron pal and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin a whopping $40 million a year to "advise on strategy" - while he continues to help Democrats undermine President Bush, the New York Times reported today.

The Enron stink won't go away soon. Even a Rubin friend, financier Felix G. Rohatyn, admits "the impression is not great when it [Rubin's intervention] is on behalf of a company that has created the worst profile in the history of capitalism."

Rubin "was a sounding board for Gov. Gray Davis of California during last summer's electricity crisis even as Citigroup worked for energy companies that were selling power to the state." The "conflicts were obvious," the Times confesses.

Typical of the Clinton administration, Rubin had, and continues, close ties with the communist Chinese dictatorship. "As hosts of last fall's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the Chinese pointedly invited Mr. Rubin to introduce President Bush — an 'old friend' presenting a president still untested in Chinese eyes."

The justification for Rubin's mind-boggling pay is murky. "He is involved in everything and nothing," the Times reports. Chuck Prince, Citigroup's chief operating officer, actually says, "He decides what he's interested in and has a way of drawing the company toward that."

Rubin "runs a nonstop tutorial on economic policy" for Democrats, coaching obstructionist Senate plurality leader and Citigroup beneficiary Tom Daschle "and other leaders on ways to debunk Bush military spending and tax cuts."

The Times notes with amusement that "affronted" Citigroup clients have flooded brokers with "irate e-mails" about Rubin's campaign against President Bush's tax cuts and other policies.
Which brings up a good point - why should anyone who supports the president and tax cuts do business with Citigroup?

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2001 12:30 p.m. EST

Dingell: I'll Grill Rubin on Enrongate Calls

Michigan congressman John Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Sunday he intends to call former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to testify in upcoming hearings into the collapse of energy giant Enron.

Dingell was asked by "Fox News Sunday's" Brit Hume whether he intended to question the former Clinton official after reports of his involvement in the scandal surfaced on Friday.

"If you watched me when I ran investigations, and I ran a lot of them and they were very, very effective, we had everybody in and we saw to it that we got all the facts," Dingell said, before adding, "Absolutely, yes."

Late last year as the energy giant was sliding into the financial abyss, Rubin reportedly attempted to intercede with the Bush Treasury Department.

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