-Caveat Lector- From http://www.yellowtimes.org/print.php?sid=137
>>>I wrote the person about the 2-dollar bill<<< }}}>Begin ''The Enron skeleton is buried six feet under the Bush White House'' Date: Saturday, February 23, 2002 @ 05:02:43 EST Topic: A.F. Nariman By A.F. Nariman YellowTimes.ORG Columnist (United States) (YellowTimes.ORG) � Republicans are touting that the Bush White House has shown it is �pure� since they did nothing to help a failing Enron when Ken Lay came a calling in October and November 2001. However, by that time Enron was a ticking time bomb, and the Bush folks were wise enough to not touch it with a ten-foot pole. The truth is a little more complicated - as it often is! It wasn�t what happened at the 11th hour that should concern the public, but what happened during the eleven months of the Bush Administration preceding Enron�s demise, the six years of a Republican held Congress and going back all the way to the first Bush Administration. The Republicans want to point at the pretty flowers planted on top of a grave. They do not want the public to search six feet below for the rotting body! David Walker (a Republican delegate to the 1980 Republican Convention which endorsed Ronal Reagan) who heads up the General Accounting Office (GAO) has taken Vice President Cheney to task and to court in order to get him to release the names of individuals attending his �Energy Task Force.� In this columnist�s humble opinion the GAO is not going far enough. Mr. Cheney is on the public dole, and is therefore accountable to his bosses; the American people. Any discussion regarding �public policy� should be available to public scrutiny. The GAO should be asking for the �minutes� of the energy task force, and of any other meetings where �public policy� was being discussed, along with any and all correspondence. The Cheney argument that lack of secrecy would inhibit individuals from openly discussing public policy with the Executive Branch, and is thereby a protected �Executive Privilege� is as phony as a two-dollar bill. If these discussions were truly with regard to policy matters with the best interests of the public in mind, there would be no one who would not want their �best ideas� given public exposure and to have their fifteen minutes of fame. There would only be a need for �secrecy� if private interests were being disguised as public policy. What are some potential conflicts of interests that may have been discussed in this �Energy Task Force?� Could it be that the �minutes of the meetings� would disclose a discussion between the participants and the White House to not impose �price caps� during January-May of 2001? If one recalls, this was the period when energy companies, especially Texas Energy companies like Enron, were gouging Californians with a 1,600% increase per kilowatt-hour. Did the Bush White House collude with the Energy companies to keep these highwaymen energy prices in place? Did they see some political benefit in ruining Governor Davis� political career and by extension his potential run against Bush in 2004? It was only when the Senate changed hands in May and Governor Davis threatened a lawsuit that the Bush Administration changed its position on �price caps.� Now a year later California is a glut in surplus energy, and energy costs are at an all time low. Something smells rotten in Denmark! Could it be the �minutes� would also reveal that the Administration had a change in heart with the agreed upon �rules� of a Stimulus Package, when Ken Lay and other big players requested the repeal of the Corporate Alternate Minimum Tax. A little know fact is that the real reason the Stimulus Bill died in Congress was that the Administration reneged on a gentleman�s agreement with the Senate Democrats on a set of rules for the stimulus package, and instead supported the egregious House Bill with its corporate tax giveaways. The latter gave Ken Lay�s Enron $254 million in tax rebates not only for the Corporate Alternate Minimum Tax going forward, but for retroactive taxes going back to 1986, when these tax cuts were imposed by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, to plug tax loopholes that allowed profitable corporations from paying zero taxes. The real scandal is that Enron had managed by its fancy accounting schemes, its off shore entities (Special Purpose Entities), and its partnerships, to avoid paying taxes for the last four years, and yet they were due to receive a windfall of $254 million under the retroactive repeal of Alternate Minimum tax under the House Stimulus Bill. Then there was �Kenny Boy�s� influence in the selection of Pat Wood to take over as Public Utilities Commission Chair in Texas under then Governor Bush, and more recently in January 2001 as the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under President Bush. Lay had warned prior FERC Chair Curtis Herbert of losing favor if he did not more strongly back deregulation. Herbert resigned from FERC upon being replaced as Chairperson by Pat Woods, III. Lay also used his connections with an energy Lawyer, now Bush�s personnel director, Clay Johnson, to have yet another slot filled on the FERC by Nora M. Brownell, a former public-utilities commissioner, who helped lobby on behalf of Enron for deregulated Pennsylvania, under then Governor Tom Ridge, who is now Bush�s Director of Homeland Security. Similarly Lay pushed heavily to have the Bush White House install Harvey Pitts to replace Arthur Levitt, Jr. as the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Arthur Levitt, one of our cleanest public officials, smelled a rat in the commingling of accounting and consulting activities by accounting firms. He strongly fought to have Congress change the rules and separate these two functions from existing within one firm. Again, Ken Lay�s money to campaign coffers caused 13 senators to write a strongly termed letter to Arthur Levitt telling him to lay-off harassing the accounting firms (large contributors to the Republican party), and the Republican controlled House and Senate killed the proposed changes. Then to add insult to injury Bush appointed archrival Harvey Pitt who had been the attorney for the accounting firms fighting Levitt�s proposed changes, to succeed him as SEC Chair. Ken Lay�s influence over the Republican party goes back to the first Bush Administration, starting with special concessions on taxes and tariffs to the company from Argentina in 1988 won by the Bush Administration, and ending with Wendy Gramm, wife of Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who as Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in December 1992 gave a special exemption allowing Enron to trade in energy derivatives. This started Enron on its long road through exhilarating profits to eventual decline. This little side deal was struck in the waning days of the first Bush administration. When the incoming Clinton Administration dethroned Chairperson Gramm, she promptly landed a plumb $300,000 (approximately) a year position on the Enron Board of Directors, while hubby Phil�s palms were greased with $97,350 over his years in Congress in campaign contributions from Lay. The rambunctious and outspoken Gramm was the leader in the pack for pushing deregulation of the Energy Industry through Congress, and squashing the sensible recommendations of SEC Chief Arthur Levitt regarding the accounting industry. Similarly, the other Republican Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, also received $99,500 in contributions, and had the dual conflict of interest with her hubby working for the law firm, Vinson & Elkins, which represents Enron. The latter seemed to be content to collect the multimillion-dollar fees from Enron by keeping silent about the irregularities at the firm instead of earning their money by working for the Enron stockholders best interest, which would have meant stopping management�s more egregious and aggressive financial practices and holding their feet to the fire of the letter and spirit of the law. Other cow-towers to corporate interests are the two big wigs from Texas, the firm of Armey and Delay, who as House Majority Leader and Whip respectively, have been carrying the water for Enron and any other large firms who grease their palms. Both Gramm and Armey, having made millions while in Congress for their political campaigns, are now on their way to K-Street to make millions for their family coffers as lobbyists. (Gramm will need it now that wife Wendy has lost her lucrative position on the board of Enron.) With their names and reputations they should be easily able to draw a million dollar salary a month! Hence, before they leave Congress the Texan-pair are pushing for making the Bush Estate Tax repeal permanent, even though they know this money is all being diverted from the Social Security Surplus, and in 2016 the trust funds will start running a deficit. Amongst others in the first Bush Administration who were given lucrative consulting contracts with Enron to do its bidding in the global economy were Secretary of State James A. Baker III, his assistant Robert Zoellick, and Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher. Baker brought the bacon home when he got Lay to agree to sponsor in large part the legal bill for the Bush vs. Gore case. Then Lay went one step further and along with other Texas Energy bigwigs plunked down $300,000 for the Bush Inaugural Ball. The Republican party has become yet another �Special Purpose Entity� of Enron. As the acerbic and plainspoken Senator Fritz Hollings, as Chair of the Sub. Committee on Commerce investigating Enron�s shenanigans, pointed out in a news conference in early February that there were a slew of Bush White House officials who had previously been on Enron�s payroll. Starting with Lawrence B. Lindsey who Chairs Bush�s National Economic Council and who was an advisor to Enron before joining the Bush team, as was Ed Gillespie a Republican strategist to the Bush Campaign. Others with White House�Enron ties include but are not limited to Army Secretary Thomas E. White, a former Enron senior executive; Baker prot�g� Robert Zoellick, the current U.S. Trade representative was a paid member of Enron's advisory board, and Marc Racicot, Ex- Governor of Montana, who joined the Bush team in Florida. Racicot was hand picked by the Bush team to run interference with the hand count of votes in November-December 2000. He also made unsubstantiated charges that the Gore team were dishonoring the military by not counting their votes. Bush recently rewarded his former henchman, who was also a former Enron lobbyist by naming him to replace disgraced Governor Jim Gilmore (under whose tutelage as National Chair the Republicans lost Governorships in both New Jersey and his own state of Virginia in 2001) to chair the Republican National Committee. Furthermore, Cheney�s Chief of Staff Lewis Libby was also previously on the Enron dole. He and Bush�s chief political advisor, Karl Rove, had large holdings in Enron stock in early 2001, which they were forced to divest themselves of after a brouhaha earlier last year regarding �conflict of interest.� Talk of �dumb luck!� Besides all this insider horse-trading, should it not worry us, the American voter and tax payer, that these very people who were giving economic and financial advice to Ken Lay and Co., viz., Lindsey and Daniels in particular, are now in charge of our economy and Federal Budget in the Bush II White House? It should be no surprise that the people who�s philosophy and advice (or lack thereof) put Enron in hock with burdensome and hidden debt and finally brought about its demise, are now in charge of a faltering economy and have put us back into deficit spending. If �money is speech� as ruled by the Supreme Court in its 1976 opinion on Buckley vs. Valeo, (http://www.thisnation.com/library/print/buckley2.html) then Kenny Boy has a lot more �free speech� than the ordinary American. As for Bush�s promise on the campaign trail of �returning honor and dignity to the White House,� one could say he blinked faster than Clinton. We all remember Clinton wagging his finger at the camera and stating, �I did not have relations with that woman.� Clinton lied to hide his shame of his affair with a 20- year old intern. While one may frown on the affair, one can at least understand if not condone the shame that led to the lie. What pray was Bush�s obfuscation about if he has nothing to hide? Bush in amazingly similar language to the finger wagging Clinton, lied not about our national bugaboo, �sex,� but about his long-term friendship with his political promoter Kenneth Lay and Enron Exec�s who through Enron has over the years given $736,800 (http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/ v6/enron_bush.asp) to Bush�s political campaigns and about $1.76 million to the Republican party for the 2000 campaign (TIME, February 4, 2002, pg. 20). Bush wiggled and squirmed under the bright lights of the television camera when he informed reporters at the White House that Ken Lay was not a close friend and he hardly knew the man. This was parodied in a cartoon for Newsweek (January 21, 2002) as Bush stating, �I did not have relations with that Company.� Instead, he continued lying when he glibly suggested Lay was a major contributor in 1994 to Governor Ann Richards in the gubernatorial race against then Ex-Texas Ranger�s Manager, G. W. Bush. The truth is Lay gave Bush $147,000 in his first gubernatorial bid far exceeding his contribution to then Governor Richards. Bush has shown he is as vulnerable as Clinton when it comes to the �white lie.� So much for character! It didn't take eight months to find the �blue dress with the stain� to out Bush, instead the news media reported within days of the off-the-cuff remarks that Bush had corresponded with Ken Lay some 350 times in the past ten years. If Bush has written 350 letters to someone he �hardly knew,� he will end up being our most prolific presidential correspondent. Move over Jefferson and Madison! The Clinton haters insisted it was not �the sex,� but the fact that Clinton committed �perjury,� which was the reason for a Republican Congress impeaching him. Well then to be fair we need to ask Bush the same questions about his connections to Ken Lay and Enron under oath, to give him a chance to prove he can be truthful. While he is under oath we should also ask him a couple of questions about his insider trading and his alleged perjury in the Service Corporation International (SCI) Funeral Home Case. The first question is with regard to his insider trading (sale) of approximately $835,000 of Harkin Energy stock in 1990, just before the Gulf War and before stock bottomed out at $2 per share. Not only was Bush a member of the Board of Directors, he was the son of the president who was planning the war. Furthermore, we should ask Bush why he as an insider did not report his sale for eight months to the Securities and Exchange Commission? And, why the then Chairman of the SEC, Richard Breeden, a friend of Papa Bush gave Junior a pat on the hand, rather than send him the pokey for his white collar crime? We should also ask him to inform us if he lied in his written petition in the SCI Funeral Home Lawsuit in Dallas, TX. His denial is belied by the defendant�s own lawyers who stated that then Governor Bush had been in touch with Funeral Owner, Robert Waltrip, regarding this matter. Mr. Bush it is alleged got a Texas Judge to throw out the lawsuit brought by whistle blower Eliza May (plaintiff). Mr. Bush, let us all thank you for returning dignity and honor to the White House! (Tongue in cheek!) A.F. Nariman encourages your comments: [EMAIL PROTECTED] YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced , reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction must identify the original source, http:// www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated. 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