Word: enronizing
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...then there's the entire office of the U.S. Attorney in Houston, recusing itself for going to too many company barbecues or something, and local District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal, recusing herself (after ruling against seizing the proceeds of Enron execs' puzzlingly well-timed stock sales) for being related to Enron through Bush consigliere James Baker - and for being a stockholder herself. And don't get us started on Wall Street...
...everybody else. But this time around - and pending discovery that the entire Bush Administration has been lying through its gritted teeth for the past week - Washington, for once, may come out of this mess smelling better than the men who wrote the checks. How "tainted" the recipients of Enron's political largesse feel is up to them. But there may be a lesson in how, apparently, Enron's lavish investment in campaign finance seems to have run up against the limits of its return...
...Here's what Kenneth Lay appears to have gotten for his money (and friendship) with this White House. A seat at the table for Dick Cheney's energy-policy formulations - OK, six seats - and the grace of the Enron-friendly energy policy that resulted. Possibly veto power over the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - former chief Curtis Hebert Jr. says Bush replaced him not long after Hebert declined Lay's demand for a friendlier stance toward energy deregulation. And a very big black book...
...when Enron needed rescuing as it began to collapse under its own debt and mismanagement? Again, if the Bush Administration is telling the truth, all those phone numbers - Paul O'Neill's, Don Evans', Alan Greenspan's - turned up absolutely nothing in the way of help. As Evans reportedly told Bush a few weeks ago: "I got a call from Ken too. He was asking me to help, but I didn't." Sunday, Evans told "Meet the Press": If I had stepped in, I think it would have been an egregious abuse of the office of secretary of commerce...
...when a company that pays its accountant $25 million can have most of Washington listening for a measly $5.6 million. But by writing checks to most of the Hill and seemingly half of the Administration (and presciently employing the other half while the Democrats were in the White House), Enron effectively made itself a leper in distress. Ashcroft is off the case, Lindsey and Rove will be busily burying themselves in other matters, and Bush's best defense against a scandal will be to make sure Justice's special Enron-dedicated task force makes Ken Starr look like he went...