Author Topic: Enron and the Clinton administration (Read 1160 times)

Ripsnort · « **on:** August 18, 2002, 10:29:55 AM »

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,338580,00.html

Quote

Enron's Democrat Pals
Documents obtained by TIME show the energy giant enjoyed much
closer ties with Clinton Administration regulators than was generally
known
BY MICHAEL WEISSKOPF

Saturday, Aug. 17, 2002 Before its messy decline and fall,Enron had plenty of clout in George W. Bush's Washington, from the personal ties between chairman Ken Lay and the President to the company's alleged influence on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. But Enron's cozy relationship with Washington didn't start there.
Documents obtained by TIME show the energy giant enjoyed much closer ties with Clinton
Administration regulators than was generally known. Long before Cheney's task force met with Enron officials and included their ideas in Bush's energy plan, Clinton's energy team was doing much the same thing. Drafting a 1995 plan to help facilitate cash flow and credit for energy producers, it asked for Enron's input-and listened. The staff was directed to "rework the proposal to take into account the specific comments and suggestions you made," Clinton
Deputy Energy Secretary Bill White wrote an Enron official.

Clinton officials also made efforts to help Enron get business overseas. Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary included Enron officials on trade missions to India, China, Pakistan and South Africa. White, returning from a 1994 trip to
Mexico, wrote chairman Lay that "much opportunity" existed there for natural gas, and he sent a copy of Mexico's energy plans. To persuade an Enron
senior vice president to join a mission to Pakistan, White wrote, "I have strong personal relationships with the existing government."

Enron showed its gratitude. At Christmas 1995, documents show, it donated an unknown sum of cash in O'Leary's name to a charity called "I Have a
Dream." And when Clinton ran for re-election a year later, the company made its largest single contribution ever-$100,000-to the President's party.

MT, you out there?

Udie · « **Reply #1 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:44:15 AM »

you're lucky im under the invluence of valiiium. You beat me to teh punch on this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toad · « **Reply #2 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:47:11 AM »

Nah, it's 10Bears that you want to debunk this Rip.

........ or maybe Politicians are all alike?

Ripsnort · « **Reply #3 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:51:28 AM »

ROTFLOL Toad! Great pic!

Eagler · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2002, 11:23:52 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Toad
Nah, it's 10Bears that you want to debunk this Rip.

........ or maybe Politicians are all alike?

Hmm, I thought goron was just there for a new koan

the Enron/Clinton/Dumbacrat tie in is old news for anyone half way conscious & paying attention which lowers it to about 10% of the population of the US

Lance · « **Reply #5 on:** August 18, 2002, 11:46:23 AM »

Guess Time aint so liberally biased after all, eh?

Ripsnort · « **Reply #6 on:** August 18, 2002, 11:58:07 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Lance
Guess Time aint so liberally biased after all, eh?

They're losing subscribers along with alot of newspapers across the country, one tends to be less bias when the pocket book is affected

Kieran · « **Reply #7 on:** August 18, 2002, 12:38:37 PM »

No. Everyone knows things were squeaky-clean in corporate America during the '90's. No way the Clinton administration could or would ever have taken money illicitly.

Damn, why oh why couldn't Gore have won, retaining the honesty and integrity that was the hallmark of the Clinton era?

-dead- · « **Reply #8 on:** August 18, 2002, 01:09:07 PM »

Makes you wonder what the republicans did for Enron to get their hands on the other four sets of $100,000 that Enron has contributed to political parties since '96...

ENRON CORP
WASHINGTON, DC 20006 10/20/1998 $100,000 NRCC/Non-Federal Account

ENRON CORP
WASHINGTON, DC 20006 3/27/2000 $100,000 NRCC/Non-Federal Account

ENRON CORPORATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20006 6/7/2001 $100,000 NRCC/Non-Federal Account

ENRON CORPORATION
HOUSTON, TX 77251 11/26/2001 $100,000 NRSC/Non-Federal Account

http://www.opensecrets.org/

Kieran · « **Reply #9 on:** August 18, 2002, 01:32:51 PM »

Swing and a miss, dead...

Fact is, both political parties take money from questionable sources. You don't have to "do" anything to get it, you can have a reputation for favoring corporations and anti-union legislation and that would be enough for many companies. Corporate America gave money to the Republican party? What a shock!

What's funny is watching Democrats rail against Enron and the Republican party as being in bed together, when in fact the Democrats were, too, and logically had to be. Enron didn't turn evil in 18 months, folks. The onus is going to fall across both parties and across both administrations.

It was mentioned in another thread the DNC gave back money from the temple after they discovered the source- isn't that ass-backwards? Don't you ask where the money is coming from BEFORE you take it, not afterward- that is, IF the media happens to find out and IF it happens to make your guy look like a greedy schmuck carnival huckster grabbing 10-spots from the hicks at the county fair?

No, I have to believe most of America just isn't buying it. The average American can figure out the Enron thing really started under another watch, that it took negligence from more than an administration, and that to a certain extent our blind greed made the whole thing possible? That maybe, just maybe, we believed what we wanted to believe so long as times were good?

Ripsnort · « **Reply #10 on:** August 18, 2002, 01:44:43 PM »

Good post Kieren!

Toad · « **Reply #11 on:** August 18, 2002, 02:05:10 PM »

Nice site, Dead.

ListTop Soft Money Donors

"983 organizations gave $100,000 or more in soft money in the 1999-2000 election cycle: Totals reflect contributions made by individuals associated with that company as well as official company contributions:"

It's sorts them alphabetically. Interesting to see that an extremely high percentage give to both parties, eh? So which ones are evil and which ones are blessed again?

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #12 on:** August 18, 2002, 02:40:17 PM »

so when are the repubs gonna be responsible for somthing ? anything?

Toad · « **Reply #13 on:** August 18, 2002, 02:43:38 PM »

Probably right about the same time the Democrats are responsible for something or anything.

In other words, never. They're POLITICIANS. Responsibility and Accountability are foreign concepts to them.. otherwise they wouldn't be successful politicians.

"Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause and let out a respectful whistle:

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed."

Kieran · « **Reply #14 on:** August 18, 2002, 02:57:02 PM »

I thought I was clear- both sides take money from industry. I am merely pointing out the hypocracy of our board Democrats trying to lay the whole Enron thing on Republicans. Common sense should tell you that both sides had their hands in it up to the armpits. I am also pointing out the sheer lunacy of thinking that any economy can tank within two months of an election because of anything the new administration did, especially when all the cabinet positions had yet to be filled AND the president has precious little to do with economy anyway.