Word: lieberman
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With politicians of all persuasions anxious to prove that they weren't in the pocket of the boys from Houston and are really working hard to get to the bottom of the Enron mess, hearings on Capital Hill began today. Joe Lieberman, positioning himself for 2004 from the big chair at the Governmental Affairs Committee, is running the Democratic show in the Senate. He'll be trying to stay centrist with fellow Democrat Carl Levin on his left and Fred Thompson on his right - and $11,500 from Arthur Andersen and $2,000 from Enron since 1989 in his pocket...
...calendar slips forward (and the legislative agenda settles into midterm election year vigorous-debate mode) Lieberman's committee will likely be where the stars come out. Governmental Affairs is the headliner, the Watergate committee, and the trio of Lieberman, Levin and Thompson - who has already made a declaration of sorts by urging the White House to "get the information out" about Enron contacts - should make for ripe daytime-cable viewing all spring. But while Lieberman must be pleased to know Ken Lay's schedule is now officially cleared, he doesn't have any big guests booked yet, and will kick...
...which means the hearings that kicked off Thursday - and the several others that will get under way in coming weeks - could take a while to heat up. Lieberman will let Levin, in charge of Governmental Affairs' investigations subcommittee, do the hard digging and knife-waving (he's already sent out 51 subpoenas to Enron and Andersen officials), but with every potential witness thoroughly "lawyered up" by now, there'll be plenty of Duncan-style immunity deals to be made, and all the legalistic haggling that comes with them, to be done first...
...maybe we'll discover that the whole bunch, from Bush to Lay to Breaux to Lieberman, is as dirty as the air in Houston, which wouldn't be all that surprising. But if you're Kenneth Lay, you've probably put away your political checkbook for a while, maybe for good, and if you're Microsoft or Comcast or ExxonMobil you might be wondering if those guys in Washington are worth the money if they can't help you out when you need it the most...
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), the chair of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, announced recently that Congress will investigate, among other things, whether Enron deceived its investors about the company’s financial status...