Posted on 07/25/2006 7:21:10 AM PDT by Mike Bates
After Enron's former chairman Ken Lay died on July 5 of a heart problem, the mainstream media were quick to point out how President George W. Bush affectionately once called the convicted criminal "Kenny Boy." Numerous references were made to the close ties between the two.
SNIP
History shows, however, that Lay supported Ann Richards when George W. Bush first ran for governor of Texas in 1994. While it is true that Lay and Enron gave some $6 million to various candidates and both parties, mostly to Republicans, at least $1.5 million went to Clinton and the Democrats. What did Lay and Enron get in return? Numerous trips overseas with Commerce Secretaries and Energy Secretaries, help on at least 18 overseas business projects, and lots of financial support in return for campaign donations. Through the Export-Import Bank and OPIC, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, in loans and loan guarantees, Enron received close to $2 billion in, what shall we call it? Corporate welfare? Payback? Investigative reporter Paul Sperry did an excellent job documenting the benefits Ken Lay received from the Clinton administration.
Lay was a member of Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development and backed the U.N.'s global warming treaty. Enron participated in a U.N. conference to develop Communist China's coal reserves.
Prosecutors in the case against Enron executives Lay and Jeffrey Skilling say they had been providing false and misleading financial information from 1999 until Enron filed for bankruptcy in late 2001. When the company finally was forced to accept the reality of what was happening, there was one more effort to keep things afloat. A prominent Democrat, Robert Rubin, who had been Clinton's Treasury secretary, suddenly got busy.
Rubin had become the chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup, one of Enron's largest creditors.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
There had been LOTS of history with Lay and the Dems ... like with Robert Rubin
But the MSM doesn't seem to remember that part of history
International Enron projects conceived and begun under the Clinton administration did a lot of harm to our credibility with nations that got suckered... Nations like India.
Thats why the call the MSM the 'drive by media'.
they shoot from the hip.....at those they want out of power.
Enron Ping
Enron/Lay crimes under Clinton
Prosecuted under Bush
Nobody remembers Lyndon Johnson either. The MSM will tell you that Nixon led us into Viet Nam in 1964.
Which wouldn't have been easy since Milhous didn't take the White House until 1969.
MSM pin up boy JFK got us heavily into Nam, going from under 2,000 military advisers when he was inaugurated to about 18,000 combat troops by the day he died.
Come on Lay was a player and a rich player at that. Any politician will go play with a rich and seemingly clean player.
Never forget that even politicians you support are still politicians.
I have to laugh at some of our history re-writers who claim JFK was just about to get us out of SE Asia...
Thanks for the guidance. I'll try to keep that in mind.
It wasn't just meant for you.
It's okay because unlike Bush, Clinton cared about the children.
"Particularly girl children -- between the ages of 18 and 21." -- W.C. Fields
The interesting thing about all of this is that the underlying facts of the Enron and other corporate scandals almost all developed during the Clinton years. Viewing this all as some kind of a malicious coincidence unrelated to the conduct of the Clinton administration is naive at best. Clinton gave massive favors to whatever businesses paid him off. Regulatory and legal forbearance necessarily had to be a part of that mix, especially because it allowed the stock market bubble to keep on inflating, thereby giving Clinton poll figures that made his conviction in the impeachment proceedings almost impossible.
The SEC, at the behest of the Clinton Administration, granted Enron a waiver from the Securities Act of 1940 allowing it to engage in the beganior that led to its downfall without anyone noticing.
That same Houston Chronicle "completely missed" the scandal under their noses as they partnered with Ken Lay to push through a stadium referendum that passed with 1% of the vote.
Snopes covers one of these emails that lists Clinton's ties to Enron and says that while neither side was clean, Bush/Republicans yadda yadda yadda.
Snopes is biased left but it is funny to see them admit that Clinton was not clean.
History doesn't exist for the Dims, and they squeal when someone reminds them of it. They act the same way when you tell the truth about them.
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