The Enron Mess

by Tommy Ates

Well, well, what a difference a humongous financial collapse can make! The Bush administration is now getting bushwhacked with inquiries and rumors regarding the Enron meltdown. Who would have thought the Houston-based oil broker, whose dealings in hidden partnerships and 'cooked' financial records to hide enormous losses (plus, being America's seventh largest company), would have finally healed Washington from its patriot amnesia stemming from the September attacks? Well, I'll be! Money does buy happiness! In terms of 'good old boys,' we can add Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill (a Democrat) and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans (old Bushite) to the 'no see evil, no hear evil, no speak evil' crew, even though the devil knocked on the door and they answered. No wonder the nation's economic policy cannot see the forest for the trees, it is on the political donor's beck and call.

All the while, Presidential spokesperson Ari Fleischer says the Bush administration has no prior knowledge of Enron's predicament or that they intervened as the company's behalf to the disbelief of many in Congress. How can executives of Enron contact secretaries of the President's Cabinet and not have their words go to the President? It's a shame that the Bush administration did not blow the whistle on Enron's dirty dealings before thousands of innocent workers lost their jobs as well as retirement benefits.

But seriously, can anyone really be surprised that Enron executives (Chairman Kenneth Lay, Et Al.) had access to heads of the Treasury and Labor departments to give them the heads up and possible want help? After all, Enron has been President Bush's biggest contributor and the company's mammoth political contributions helped bolster many Republicans into office. This Enron debacle is a prime example of money buying access and an example of how corporations can circumvent laws and promote white-collar robbery of the lower-classes.

To make things worse, the Republican administration never offered to provide relief for the employees or suggest solutions (via resolutions) to make corporate behavior like Enron's less likely to occur. An official not telling how a stock price once valued at $83 could plummet to less than a dollar undermines the public trust. With no agenda, yet quiet smiles in the cabinets' public statements, more Americans are realizing that Attorney General John Ashcroft and Interior Secretary Gale Norton are not just conservative anomalies, rather they are part of a wider, greater effort of conservative appointees to provide legislative cover for big business to generate greater profits as the average, working-class American suffers.

As for the Enron-gate distraction, will there be criminal charges ordered in the wake of the multi-million dollar theft? Maybe. Will the executives still keep most, if not all, the booty? You 'betcha! The American justice system is inactive for a price!

Yes, folks; it may be sad, but I, for one, am ironically comforted to see that human nature is no different under the system of government we live: be it a rich man doing insider trading or a poor man performing a bank robbery, greed is universal.[]

....................................................