Posted on 12/14/2001 3:04:33 AM PST by sarcastro
12/13 Ben: Spin works its way into liberal harping on Enron In politics, people often delight in the pain of their opponents. That's been the case with some liberals who have been harping on the bankruptcy of energy trading company Enron due to its deep connections to President Bush and members of his administration. Of course, there's nothing wrong with such criticism or satire per se, but some of these liberals have gone beyond reasonable debate and made unproven, illogical and misleading allegations about Enron and the administration.
A major piece of this attack came yesterday from Los Angeles Times and syndicated columnist Robert Scheer. Scheer's article is full of innuendo and suggestion, citing numerous campaign contributions by Enron to Bush and connections between his administration and the company, but he never actually makes a connection between the company's downfall and the President.
The closest he comes is in his final paragraph, when he states that "[w]e have a right to know whether the Enron alums in the administration were tipped off in time to bail out with profit the way [Chairman Kenneth] Lay and the other Enron top execs did." Surely, no one would disagree that the public should know if this happened. Scheer has no evidence to suggest that it did, however -- this is simply speculation. He additionally fails to note that members of the administration were required to divest their stock holdings, although some took longer to do this than others.
What makes this lack of substance particularly disturbing is that Scheer claims that this case "has the makings of the greatest presidential scandal since the Teapot Dome." Teapot Dome was a case where Warren Harding's Interior Secretary, Albert Fall, gave access to national oil reserves to a private company in return for $400,000 in gifts and loans. In the case of Enron, however, no one, not even Scheer, has alleged that officials violated the law to enrich the company in return for bribes. The comparison seems particularly absurd when one considers that Enron has not recently benefited from any largesse--it has gone bankrupt.
While Scheer twists logic in his connections and comparisons, he stops short of outright dissembling. That task was picked up by another pundit, however, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins. In an otherwise reasonable December 6 article, she asks what would have happened if Enron had been connected to former President Clinton and it had fallen apart under his watch, and writes, "Holy moley, we'd have four congressional investigations, three special prosecutors, two impeachment inquiries and a partridge in a pear tree by now."
Humorous hyperbole aside, the implication, however, is that Enron's bankruptcy and any potential wrongdoing is not being investigated. In fact, while there aren't four congressional investigations, there is one, which has requested the presence of top Enron executives and heard damning testimony from the company's auditors. Growing concern from politicians makes it likely this hearing will continue to probe Enron's downfall. In addition, Ivins conveniently fails to note that President Clinton's administration did have ties to Enron, and that they are not being investigated as of yet.
Many liberals have been criticizing Enron's connections to Bush for a while, and it's not surprising to see them jumping on its collapse as an opportunity to score political points. But illogical attacks and dissembling should not be thrown into the mix.
Guess these deep throat wannabe's think it's funny that all those people lost their jobs, their pensions, etc. and consider this an opportunity to connect the company to the president.
That is when they aren't lamenting on how terrible our government is acting with regard to the adorable Johnny Walker, who isn't getting to see him mommy and daddy.
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