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By Christopher Reilly

YellowTimes.ORG Journalist

(YellowTimes.ORG) – After the Houston-based energy company Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, the company’s trail of corruption leads directly to the Bush administration’s backyard. The connections between members of the Bush administration and the corporate-giant are too large to ignore, making it hard to imagine that Bush administration members, including the president himself, had no involvement in illegal activity that has resulted in thousands of people losing their jobs, many of those losing their entire life savings.

The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the collapse of Enron, with Mr. Bush trying to hide from the accusing finger by openly declaring an investigation into the company is needed. But after looking at Mr. Bush and other members of his administration’s previous dealings with Enron, one cannot help but question how the president and his administration could not be involved.

It began with Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay’s ties to the Bush family. After the Gulf War, one of Kuwait’s power plants needed to be replaced. Enron put a bid on the contract by proposing to supply power for eleven cents per kilowatt hour, according to the London-based newspaper The Guardian. A rival company, Deutsche Babcock, based in Germany, would have supplied the power for almost half that price at six cents per hour. But the former Bush administration awarded Enron the massive contract.

After that administration lost the 1992 election to former president William Clinton, Enron then hired former Bush administration cabinet members James Baker and Robert Mosbacher as consultants.

The current President Bush had just as much involvement with Mr. Lay than his father. Mr. Lay was the head of then-Governor George W. Bush’s business council. According to Pratap Chatterjee of Corporate Watch, they seemed to agree on policy, as then-Governor Bush gave special concessions to Enron, such as allowing the Enron methanol plant in Texas to pollute without a permit. Pratap Chatterjee stated that in 1997 alone, the methanol plant released 3,500 tons of nitrogen oxide when only seven percent of the ingredient would have been considered legal. The accusation continues, saying that Mr. Bush gave the company immunity from prosecution for violating certain pollution laws.

When Mr. Bush decided to run for president, Mr. Lay must have been overjoyed, knowing that the governor’s victory would secure even more political influence for Enron. His financial books showed it; Mr. Lay raised more than $100,000 for the race. The rest of Enron and its executives donated a separate $114,000 themselves.

Despite the ties between Enron and Mr. Bush, the president still felt confident enough to say that he “never discussed with Mr. Lay the financial problems of the company.”

It is also questionable whether Mr. Bush knew that more than 500 employees of Enron were “paid bonuses totaling $55 million just days before the energy company filed for bankruptcy,” as London-based newspaper The Times reported on December 7, 2002.

According to the article, these bonuses averaged $110,000 per selected employee, compared to the $4,500 severance packages offered to the 5,100 employees of Enron in Houston and London who were laid off. Many of these employees had to helplessly watch their entire retirement savings go down the drain as the Enron stock plummeted to near zero, all because the company 401(k) did not allow employees to sell their stock before they reached 60 years of age.

One employee, 59 year-old Tom Padgett, watched his assets drop from $615,000 to $11,000. He was only six months away from retirement.

But according to the U.S. President, he knew none of these corrupt practices were going on. Other members of his administration have claimed the same story.

For example, Vice-President Dick Cheney, who became close with Mr. Lay while chief executive of the Houston-based energy company Halliburton. As the Financial Times wrote, “Mr. Lay and Mr. Cheney had worked closely on one of the city’s [Houston] most prominent new landmarks, a baseball stadium for the home-team Astros, which was built by a Halliburton subsidiary and bears the name of Mr. Lay’s company: Enron Field.”

Mr. Cheney also seems to be trying to block efforts of investigating the company by not releasing records of meetings between his energy taskforce and Enron as they were creating the Bush administration’s energy legislation.

Perhaps this has something to do with the vice-president’s “disappearing act” since the events of September 11.

Once again, the connections do not stop here.

Both White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick were employed as consultants by Enron before working for the Bush administration.

Voices in Congress, such as conservative Democrat John Breaux, have demanded the Bush administration to disclose all secrets regarding Enron. But many of these members of Congress may also be tainted by the corruption flowing out of Enron.

Democratic Senator Breaux himself received about $11,000 in donations from Enron in the last 10 years, as the Center for Responsive Politics states. Another critic of the Bush administration’s dealings with Enron is Congressman John Dingell, a Democrat in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He too has received thousands of dollars from Enron.

The company recently gave $100,000 to an arm of the Republican Party, who have now returned the money, and another $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who have donated the money to charity.

It is obvious, however, that the bulk of Enron's money went directly to the Bush administration, a fact that has raised eyebrows amongst skeptics.

One anonymous source close to the investigation stated, "It should be obvious that the switch in funds from Republicans to Democrats reflects the reality of Enron's situation. At the moment when senior Bush administration officials found out of Enron's imminent collapse, it was in their best interests to distance themselves from any potential scandal."

The source continued, "Through this lens, it can be easily seen that the shift in funds is no more than a smart tactical ploy to spread Enron's corruption to the Democratic party, who would surely investigate the Bush administration's dealings with the company after its collapse."

All of these dealings should be looked in to, but the bulk of the bulk of the investigation should fall within the Bush administration and their strong ties with Mr. Lay.

As Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told the Financial Times, “Supporters of the Bush administration have to ask themselves what would have been their reaction if the Clintons came out this way. They would have gone ballistic.”

Christopher Reilly encourages your comments: creilly@YellowTimes.ORG"