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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   Enron and the Bush Administration   
   Lay and Skilling in the Dock   
   By JASON LEOPOLD   
      
   For many people familiar with Enron's meteoric rise and sudden downfall four   
   years ago, the high-flying energy company and the company's crooked "E" logo   
   have come to represent corporate greed, corruption and excess at its worst.   
      
   But more important, Enron should be symbolic for something else: it was the   
   first in a long list of corporate scandals involving the Bush administration   
   and numerous members of Congress.   
      
   Back in August 2001, just two months before Enron imploded in a wave of   
   accounting scandals in which thousands of employees lost their jobs and   
   their pensions, and which wiped out $60 billion in shareholder value, an   
   Enron lobbyist tipped off the Bush administration about the company's   
   impending financial problems.   
      
   A former Enron executive who was then under congressional investigation in   
   relation to the company's collapse explained at the time how Skilling's   
   abrupt resignation from the company raised red flags within Enron and   
   worried insiders.   
      
   "It was very well known that Enron faced a financial meltdown," the former   
   executive said at the time, and when interviewed again for this story last   
   week the executive repeated those remarks. "The day that Jeff resigned, our   
   stock plummeted. We knew it wouldn't rally. What we didn't know was how the   
   financial problems at Enron would impact the energy markets in the US.   
   That's why Pat met with Mr. McNally."   
      
   Enron's ties to Washington lawmakers were stronger than disgraced lobbyist   
   Jack Abramoff's. There was a time when Ken Lay, known as "Kenny Boy" to   
   Bush, could pick up the phone and speak with the president, Vice President   
   Dick Cheney or any number of senior administration officials.   
      
   The two months prior to Enron's downfall was one of those times.   
      
   On August 15, 2001, one day after Skilling resigned from the company, Lay   
   sent Enron lobbyist Pat Shortridge to meet with White House economic advisor   
   Robert McNally. Shortridge warned McNally that Skilling's resignation could   
   lead to a fiscal crisis that could possibly cripple the country's energy   
   markets, a former Enron executive told this reporter three years ago.   
      
   The White House acknowledged that the meeting between Shortridge and McNally   
   took place in documents released to reporters and Sen. Joe Lieberman,   
   D-Conn., chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which in 2002   
   investigated the fall of Enron. The documents noted that "Mr. McNally met   
   with Mr. Shortridge and another individual who was not from Enron."   
      
   When asked whether Enron's future had been discussed, White House   
   spokeswoman Anne Womack said at the time that "if the meeting was about   
   that, I would assume there wouldn't be anyone else there besides Mr. McNally   
   and Mr. Shortridge."   
      
   What's troubling about the meeting between Shortridge and McNally is the   
   fact that the White House was tipped off to Enron's financial troubles   
   months before it had previously acknowledged them and well in advance of the   
   warning letter former Enron executive Sherron Watkins delivered to Lay, in   
   which she said that the firm's Byzantine partnerships could destroy the   
   company.   
      
   As with the 9/11 attacks, one question that is still left unanswered in the   
   Enron debacle is: What did President Bush know, and when did he know it?   
   In May 2002, the White House complied with a subpoena and turned over more   
   than 2,000 pages of documents pertaining to Bush administration contacts   
   with Enron to various Senate and Congressional committees investigating   
   Enron's demise.   
      
   What the documents revealed was the close relationship that Enron enjoyed   
   with the White House and how the company was able to influence President   
   Bush's political agenda by recommending people to various posts within the   
   administration.   
      
   Buried deep within the pages of those documents was a letter Lay sent   
   January 8, 2001, to Bush's personnel director, Clay Johnson, recommending   
   seven candidates to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Two of the   
   candidates Lay recommended, Pat Wood and Nora Brownell, were appointed to   
   FERC by Bush; Wood was appointed chairman. Another document revealed Lay   
   calling the White House incessantly for help.   
      
   Lay called Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on October 28, 2001, to advise   
   him that Enron was heading toward bankruptcy. The next day, Lay asked   
   Commerce Secretary Don Evans for help in keeping a major Wall Street ratings   
   agency from downgrading Enron's credit rating, which would push the company   
   into bankruptcy. A week later, Enron president Greg Whalley called Treasury   
   Under Secretary Peter Fisher six to eight times, seeking help in getting   
   banks to lend more money to Enron.   
      
   Following these revelations, the White House was forced to admit in January   
   2002 that it had asked Lawrence B. Lindsey, former head of Bush's National   
   Economic Council, to conduct a review in October 2001--before Lay called   
   O'Neill and Evans -- to see whether an Enron collapse could have a strong   
   impact on the American economy. Critics were in an uproar following the   
   admission, because President Bush and his senior aides had vehemently denied   
   having any prior knowledge of Enron's financial status or impending   
   troubles.   
      
   As Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee   
   said at the time, "it shows once again that the administration did a lot of   
   thinking about the fact that the company was going to collapse, but they did   
   absolutely nothing to make sure that 50,000 Enron employees would not lose   
   their life savings."   
      
   The intimate relationship between Enron and the Bush administration is also   
   clearly shown by these documents. Lindsey had been a paid consultant for   
   Enron, receiving $50,000 in 2000. And he is just one of the top White House   
   and Republican Party officials with close Enron ties, including Robert   
   Zoellick, the United States trade representative who sat on an Enron   
   advisory board in 2000; Karl Rove, senior White House political strategist,   
   who held more than 1,000 Enron shares before selling them in June 2001; and   
   Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, who worked as   
   an Enron lobbyist last year.   
      
   Then there are Enron's close financial ties to the Bush campaign. Enron and   
   its employees gave more than $1 million to Bush's 2000 election campaign,   
   the Republican Party, and the Bush Inaugural, and Bush aides used the Enron   
   corporate jet during the post-election fracas in Florida.   
      
   But perhaps the most egregious crime is how President Bush and Vice   
   President Cheney sat by and allowed Enron to rip off California.   
      
   On May 29, 2001, when the California energy crisis reached its peak,   
   resulting in nearly a week of rolling blackouts, bankruptcies, and several   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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