|
|
|
Connections in Washington: February 15, 2002 | Pages 6 and 7 THE HEARING rooms of Congress are filling with hot air from lawmakers talking tough about Enron's collapse. But most of official Washington is implicated in the Enron scandal. BILL ALLISON is managing editor for the Washington watchdog group Center for Public Integrity and co-author of The Cheating of America. He talked to ELIZABETH SCHULTE. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHAT ARE Enron's connections to George W. Bush, and what did the company get for its money? WE FOUND that Enron was the top donor to Bush's campaigns over the course of his career. Starting with the 1994 gubernatorial election in Texas, they've contributed $623,000 to him. And that doesn't include soft money to the Republican Party. Over the years in Texas, Enron got a deregulation plan from Bush. And in the Houston area, Enron owns a plant that's one of the worst polluters. Of course, Bush is responsible for "voluntary limits" on pollution. Then there's the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees a lot of the transmission lines and federal regulation of the utility industry. There was a man named Curtis Hébert who was put on the FERC by Bill Clinton. During a meeting about the California energy crisis, Lay basically told Hébert, "If you back us on this, I'll support you for continuing in your job." Hébert refused, and he was later replaced by a guy in Texas who was on Enron's short list of people to be on the FERC. ENRON'S WASHINGTON ties aren't just to Bush and the Republicans, are they? IN THE Clinton years, there were just as many shenanigans going on. Enron was one of the companies that bought seats on Ron Brown's trade missions--one to India and one to Russia. And they gave $40,000 in soft money around the time of those trips. The Clinton administration intervened on the Indian power plant run by Enron, which caused all kinds of problems. Mack McLarty, Clinton's first chief of staff and later a White House official, was personally involved in this on Clinton's behest. On the congressional side, 71 people in the Senate and 187 members of the House took money from Enron. Among the Democrats, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was one of the top recipients. In 1998, he wrote a letter to the FERC asking about the regulation of government contracts with power plants not being fair to utilities--and Enron applauded this. On the Republican side, there's Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas)--and, of course, his wife Wendy, who in 1992 was on the Bush Sr. administration's Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She made a decision not to regulate things that Enron was trading, and in 1993, she went to the board of directors for Enron. In 1996, when Phil ran for the Republican nomination for president, Ken Lay and his wife were regional chairs for his campaign. And of course, Wendy was on Enron's audit committee, which is supposed to be looking at the books for the board of directors--and she was one of the people who was dumping her shares of stock as the company was going down the tubes. WHAT DOES the Enron scandal say about the whole Washington system? THIS IS the thing about Enron: In the 2000 election cycle, they were only the 36th most generous donor. There were 35 companies and unions that gave more than Enron, which tells you something. There's another story about a company called Global Crossing, a Bermuda-based telecom company that needed a lot of favors to thrive in terms of FCC regulations. They just collapsed into bankruptcy, with accounting irregularities alleged by a former employee. Terry McAuliffe, the head of the Democratic National Committee, made an $18 million windfall from investing in its stock. Bush Sr., instead of taking an $80,000 speaking fee, took Global Crossing stock that, at its peak, would have been worth about $14 million. I think Enron is actually an all-too-common phenomenon. The naked greed of all these companies--and how close they get to power--is staggering.
|