Posted on 08/08/2002 3:22:43 PM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - A Republican lawmaker wants former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to testify before a Senate committee regarding his failed efforts to get government help in preventing the collapse of energy giant Enron.
Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) also took a rhetorical swipe at Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), former Democratic vice presidential nominee and possible 2004 presidential candidate, for his reticence in forcing Rubin's testimony before the Senate this fall.
Foley fired off a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt on Thursday urging the SEC to launch its own investigation into Rubin's November 2001 call to Treasury Department official Pete Fisher.
According to a Treasury Dept. spokesperson, the purpose of Rubin's call was to gain Fisher's help in convincing Wall Street credit-reporting agencies to forestall plans to downgrade Enron's credit rating.
Rubin's present employer, Citigroup, was an Enron creditor and thus had an interest in preventing Enron's collapse. Rubin has served as chairman of Citigroup's executive committee for the past three years.
Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, has said he plans to hold hearings this fall to examine the relationship between Enron and government officials, but has expressed little interest in questioning former Clinton administration officials.
"There is ... evidence that a bunch of other people at Enron called people like Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and others in the White House," Lieberman told radio talk show host Don Imus on Aug. 2.
But Lieberman didn't mention Rubin's call and, when asked about it, said, "If we have any reason to believe it will be constructive to call any of these people - Rubin, [Enron Chairman and CEO] Ken Lay, Evans, anybody else - we'll do it."
That didn't sit well with Foley. "If Joe Lieberman won't do his job, I'll do it for him," he said. "He has a responsibility to subpoena Rubin, and he's ignoring that responsibility."
Foley cited "possible wrongdoing" on the part of Citigroup and Rubin as justification for getting Rubin's explanation of events.
"I can only hope he's not doing this to protect his single biggest campaign contributor before possibly running for the presidency," said Foley. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Citigroup has given nearly $60,000 for campaign-related expenses to Lieberman over the past five years.
Leslie Phillips, a spokesperson for Lieberman, said the senator harbors the same level of concern about Enron's contacts with government officials as he does Rubin's.
A spokesman for retiring Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), the ranking member of the Senate Government Reform Committee, said that Thompson is not pressuring Lieberman to pursue Rubin.
But Edward H. Fleischman, a former SEC commissioner and current New York University law school professor, said Rubin didn't do anything wrong by making a phone call.
"I always thought that whoever was on the calling end was perfectly, appropriately exercising his or her rights as a ... citizen, businessman or investor," said Fleischman. "Anybody on the outside can call a government official, and it's up to the government official to say that's not a matter that I even want to talk to you about.
"We, as a public, tend to look askance at anybody trying to interfere with...the processes of government," he observed, but "at the same time, we are very jealous of our privilege to lobby.
"If you were to say to me that Mr. Rubin had some kind of obligation to the Treasury Department because his past service still continued," that would be a different matter, Fleischman said.
Still, said Fleischman, the lawyer and Republican in him understands the desire to keep the name of a Democrat and former Clinton official in the news.
"I'm a lawyer, right? I'm a hired gun," he quipped. "If you want me to try to figure out some way, since I'm a Republican, too, in which you can put Mr. Rubin on the hot seat, that's a different question."
E-mail a news tip to Christine Hall.
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foley has the right idea. get those who can actually file charges to do the investigation. i suspect that the bush administration has an investigation going on as we speak.
The sooner this man is gone the better...what a tremendous disappointment Tompson has been..surrendered to Glenn on the Chicom hearings and now this....
Somebody please ask Mr. Fleischman THAT question.
4 posted on 8/8/02 4:06 PM Pacific by drc43
Well he is an actor.... And he played a Republican part-time!
Wow!!! A Republican with balls! Here I was thinking that Newt was the last keeper of the Repulican gonads and that they were lost when he left town. It's a genuine miracle!!!
SURE! My senator, John Warner (r-va) for one. There are a lot of second choices. Try Hatch as an example.
Lieberman Hit
Lieberman Hit
Lieberman Hit
...
I just like the way this looks...the words also flow so nicely....
IMHO for the last three years we have been in a deflation. For the last ten years or so the dollar has appreciated by 40%. The short term rates on T bills in this country should have been 1%. Remember, we have 100% security, world's best military and a stable, growing economy.
High US interest rates and demands for capital to meet balance of payment problems have resulted in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico all being pressed to the wall.
yes, the house has a committee investigating enron. i am not sure why rubin has not yet been called by the house committee. i suppose there is some fear of being called 'a politiker' by the democrats if there is nothing there. could also be fear -- "if you call rubin we are going to expose this about your team..."
"...ould also be fear..."
Well, that's a given. ;o)
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