« Federal Scam Gives Spammers No Credit | Main | In Which We Begin a Protest Against a Popular Business Blog »

May 25, 2006

Confused Americans for Truth - Enron Scandal Story Nets the Big Fish

by Ferdinand T Cat

On November 8, 2001, while the country was still reeling from the September 11 attacks, former Clinton Administration official Robert Rubin made a call to Peter Fischer, a high-ranking member of the Treasury Department. Rubin wanted Fischer to intercede with the SEC to prevent Enron's bond rating from being downgraded. Fischer refused. It was not the first or the last time Enron or one of its investors would call in a favor from the Bush Administration, but for whatever reason, Enron's pleas fell on deaf ears. In less than a month, the entire house of cards would collapse.

Those of us who lived through the Enron collapse remember that the big story was Enron CEO Ken Lay's friendship with George W. Bush. The details of the collapse and the role of that friendship are largely forgotten, but the truth is that bribing the Bush Administration was a very bad investment.

Ken Lay was convicted on six counts of fraud and conspiracy. It's entirely possible that Lay really believed his own PR, and thought if he could keep juggling the books and spending like crazy, he could pull out of debt. This is not an uncommon belief system, and in fact is the basis for the State of Illinois's new budget. It is likely, however, that in the coming weeks Democrats will use Lay's conviction to peddle their Culture of Corruption theme. I think that would be a huge mistake.

Democrats have had a hard time raising money ever since Howard Dean took over. The real Enron story, however, the one in which the Bush Administration failed to deliver services for fees rendered, gives the Democrats a whole new tool for attracting corporate money. I already have a slogan for them.

The Democratic National Committeee

WE STAY BOUGHT


Let's face it: a political party that believes in less government is hardly going to be in a position to hand out special favors. If you need your bond rating to reach for the stars while your balance sheet sinks through the floor, you need a Democrat. So before you shell out the big bucks for a small favor, remember what the Bush Administration did to Enron and consider investing in a Democrat instead. Remember, when you buy a Democrat, we stay bought!

I can't see a downside here.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

Trackposted to Third World Bribery, Liberal Common Favors, TMH's Financial Bits, The Business of America is Accounting Fraud, Jo's Secret Meeting Place, and Basil's Balance Sheet in Which Most of the Debt is Hidden in Offshore Companies.

# At Thu 2:26 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (1) | More Confused Americans for Truth

Trackback Pings

Comments

for years i have been trying to tell my Democrat friends about Paul Rubin's connection. The very fact a former Treasury secretary thinks this something he should do makes me wonder what he was doing while he was in office.

But it always fell on deaf ears. Including when I tried to point out many of Enron's crimes were committed before Bush took office. That didn't seem to matter.


Posted by: PlutosDad Author Profile Page at May 25, 2006 3:55 PM

Leave a comment

HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it.

Leave a comment