thanks. just in case anybody else needs something:
Origins: The
debacle that is Enron will take years to unravel, and the end result will be that no one person or group or political party will be held to "blame" for the whole affair. Enron has been spreading around so much money and influence through its lobbying efforts for so many years -- among both Republicans and Democrats, in federal as well as in state governments -- that neither party can take the moral high ground here. As The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Enron's tentacles ran so deep into Washington's political establishment that 71 sitting senators and nearly half of the current House of Representatives received Enron money during the last decade, including some who are now investigating the company's bankruptcy.
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The Enron chairman stayed at the White House 11 times.
As Brendan Nyhan revealed in an article at Salon.com, Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was never an overnight visitor at the White House during the Clinton adminstration. But, according to Nyhan, "Lay did, however, stay at the White House when George H.W. Bush was president."
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As for those supposedly shocking figures bandied about, such as:
Enron gave $420,000 to the
president's party over three years. It donated $100,000 to the president's inauguration festivities.
Those numbers, even if accurate, don't come close to matching what has been reported about Enron's contributions to George W. Bush and the Republican party, such as this item from The Hartford Courant:
Since 1989, the Houston-based energy broker and its employees have made more than $5.7 million in contributions to federal candidates and political parties, nearly three-quarters of it to Republicans. Enron was George W. Bush's biggest contributor in the 2000 presidential campaign.
Nor do they match what The New York Times uncovered:
Enron, Arthur Andersen and Vinson & Elkins, a Houston law firm, are among the most generous contributors to Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. Enron has given more than $700,000 to Mr. Bush since 1993; no company has given him more. In addition, Enron's chairman, Kenneth L. Lay, was one of the "pioneers," raising more than $100,000 for Mr. Bush's e-mail campaign, and he and his wife gave a total of $10,000 to Mr. Bush's Florida recount fund. Enron and Mr. Lay also contributed a total of $200,000 to Mr. Bush's inaugural festivities.
If we're looking to pass out soap, we don't need to be discriminating -- there are plenty of dirty hands to go around here.
Last updated: 18 March 2002
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