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Enron, which closed a deal, backed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, to develop European markets for Russian gas, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Administration's export policy. During the past two years, the Ex-Im Bank has supported Enron's agreements with Turkey, India, the Philippines and China - deals worth nearly $4 billion. Kenneth Brody, head of the Ex-Im Bank, is a close friend of Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, having worked with Rubin at Goldman, Sachs. Enron is listed on Rubin's 1993 financial disclosure statement as one of the forty-four companies with which Rubin had "significant contact" during his years at the investment firm. (Brody, by the way, is said to be a leading candidate to take over at Commerce if Brown, under investigation for everything from slumlording to collecting $400,000 for his "share" in a company in which he had invested nothing, is forced to resign.)

Like Boeing, many companies have larded the Democrats after being helped by the Administration on the export front. Westinghouse executives have traveled with Brown to South America, Russia and China, where the company racked up $430 million in sales. It also received Ex-Im backing for a $300 million plan to complete and upgrade the Temelin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. (When that deal was originally hatched in 1993, Warren Hollinshead, Westinghouse's chief financial officer, chaired the Ex-Im Bank's nonvoting private advisory committee.) Westinghouse has traditionally favored the G.O.P. for political contributions, but during the last election cycle the company gave $149,350 to the Democrats, compared with $78,825 to the Republicans.

Given these kinds of disparities, it's no wonder some Republicans are now talking about shutting down Ron Brown's export-boosting operation. It would be surprising if they moved very far on that front, though, since their bread is buttered on the same side as Brown's. As James Treybig, who negotiated a $100 million joint venture agreement for Tandem Computers while in China with the Commerce Secretary, told the Wall Street Journal, "Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, you really have to respect this guy for what he's done for corporate America."