Shocking White House Scandal!!!

SCANDAL IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Certainly there is a political dimension here. Enron's chairman did meet with the president and the vice president in the Oval Office.

Enron gave $420,000 to the president's party over three years. It
donated $100,000 to the president's inauguration festivities.

The Enron chairman stayed at the White House 11 times.

The corporation had access to the administration at its highest levels and even enlisted the Commerce and State Departments to grease deals for it.

The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in just one transaction.

BUT...the president under whom all this happened wasn't George W. Bush.

It was Bill Clinton.

I know you are as shocked as I was to learn this!

[fable]

No, I'm not shocked. It's been common knowledge that Enron gave to both major parties over the years, and did major lobbying efforts with whomever was in power. Standard Operational Procedure.

I think you're misinterpreting the major dimension of the Enron Scandal. It's not about whether Enron bought the services of a government; it's about whether Enron's access caused high government officials (specifically the Dubyah and his VP) to take actions that would compromise the integrity of public office.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: fable ]

[Larry_OHF]

!!!
Hmmm....

Well, what are they going to do with him?

Hopefully his former office holding will not prevent him from a good bitch-slap.

He needs a cell-mate. A BIG cell mate.

quote:

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Originally posted by fable:
No, I think you're misinterpreting the major dimension of the Enron Scandal. It's not about whether Enron bought the services of a government; it's about whether Enron's access caused high government officials (specifically the Dubyah and his VP) to take actions that would compromise the integrity of public office.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: fable ]

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Actually Im not [img]smile.gif[/img] I thought the post was funny and not really a serious commentary, but I WILL publicly eat my hat on the forum here if any impropiety by Bush OR Chaney is found. So far to date, there are innuendo and speculation, there has been NO evidence of any kind that Dick Chaney or George W. Bush has done anything illegal, immoral or impropriotous with concerns to ENRON.


[img]smile.gif[/img]

[fable]

quote:

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Originally posted by MagiK:


Actually Im not [img]smile.gif[/img] I thought the post was funny and not really a serious commentary, but I WILL publicly eat my hat on the forum here if any impropiety by Bush OR Chaney is found. So far to date, there are innuendo and speculation, there has been NO evidence of any kind that Dick Chaney or George W. Bush has done anything illegal, immoral or impropriotous with concerns to ENRON. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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I'd feel a lot better about that if Cheney's copies of the minutes of those White House meetings weren't being refused to the Congressional Investigating Committee, under orders by Bush. After all, if he hasn't got anything to hide, why doesn't he want to show the papers? It's not like they were transcripts of private conversations between two pals--these were scheduled meetings between highly placed Enron corporate executives, and the VP of the United States.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: fable ]

[nick1979]

quote:

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Originally posted by fable:


I'd feel a lot better about that if Cheney's copies of the minutes of those White House meetings weren't being refused to the Congressional Investigating Committee, under orders by Bush. After all, if he hasn't got anything to hide, why doesn't he want to show the papers? It's not like they were transcripts of private conversations between two pals--these were scheduled meetings between highly placed Enron corporate executives, and the VP of the United States.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: fable ]

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Well if we are going to do this there a alot of people in congress who need to release their dealing with Enron. It seems to me that the Pres. and VP are being singled out when there are alot of people in bed with Enron.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: nick1979 ]

[khazadman]

the reason congress wants those papers is because the dems are pushing for them,hopeing to find something....or they were.they've been losing interest in enron lately.and ya know why?because the deeper they dug the more THEY were implicated in wrong doing.

and did ya see the latest on the clinton investigations?it turns out they did have proof of criminal acts perpetrated by that administration.well better late than never i guess.

[fable]

quote:

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Originally posted by khazadman:
the reason congress wants those papers is because the dems are pushing for them,hopeing to find something....or they were.they've been losing interest in enron lately.and ya know why?because the deeper they dug the more THEY were implicated in wrong doing.

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Actually, the Congressional committee that's requesting this information is, like all committees, split down the middle with an extra vote and the chairmanship going to the Democrats; but in this case, every single committee member has repeatedly voted to demand those papers. And some of the strongest calls for Presidentially sequested information have come from the Conservative Republican ranks: Phil Graham of Texas, for example.

quote:

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Originally posted by fable:


I'd feel a lot better about that if Cheney's copies of the minutes of those White House meetings weren't being refused to the Congressional Investigating Committee, under orders by Bush. After all, if he hasn't got anything to hide, why doesn't he want to show the papers? It's not like they were transcripts of private conversations between two pals--these were scheduled meetings between highly placed Enron corporate executives, and the VP of the United States.

[ 03-06-2002: Message edited by: fable ]

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Historicly every administration has been allowed to have private discussions with industry heads, the idea and ideal was to foster an environment of candid discourse without fear of having your words twisted and thrown back at you by the press. Every administration needs to have the trust of the nations industrial leaders so as to form valid and viable economic strategies. Cheny is doing what he believes is best, when the Supreme Court finaly rules, Im pretty sure they will side with him. And if they don't Im sure he will comply with the Law.

[fable]

quote:

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Originally posted by MagiK:



Historicly every administration has been allowed to have private discussions with industry heads, the idea and ideal was to foster an environment of candid discourse without fear of having your words twisted and thrown back at you by the press. Every administration needs to have the trust of the nations industrial leaders so as to form valid and viable economic strategies. Cheny is doing what he believes is best, when the Supreme Court finaly rules, Im pretty sure they will side with him. And if they don't Im sure he will comply with the Law.

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Cheney's actually following the new Presidental Order which came down last summer, reversing a policy put into place by the Carter administration and followed ever since--providing complete access to any requested document held by the executive branch of the government, including the Cabinet. Congress requested info from Dubyah's dad and Clinton, and got it; and to their credit, they were carefully judged requests. (More probably because the senators and congresspeople feared a backlash from voters if they were perceived as bullying the president than anything else, admittedly.) The policy was set into place to reestablish an atmosphere of trust and "oil the hinges" of government, which had grown full of suspicion and very rusty after Watergate.

The problem here is that Enron isn't just a matter of access purchased by large election donations, which is perfectly legal at this time: it's a matter of potential conflict of interest. Major decisions were made in favor specifically of Enron (rather than its competitors) by Dubyah, and a number of highranking Enron executives have major posts in the Cabinet. This *could* possibly go beyond simple access into the executive branch working on behalf of Enron. Analyzing Cheney's documents would go a long way to either quieting those concerns, or confirming them.

So there are two issues: 1) Reversing a longheld administration policy which made life easier between the traditionally adversarial branches of the US government; and 2) clearing up issues of access vs advocacy in the executive branch. I suspect that's why extremely conservative Republicans in Congress want those documents, and here (and sometimes elsewhere) I'm with 'em.