Enron saga has scandal lovers in a lather
NO WAR OR 'NEW WAR', Washington loves a scandal. The collapse of oil giant Enron has landed with a resounding thud on the White House doorstep. This weekend, it pushed the hunt for Osama bin Laden off the front pages and the television screens for the first time since September 11.
It is early days, but already it seems to have it all - a ready-made classic of the scandal genre. The talking heads are salivating.
A high-flying Texas oil company with long-standing ties to President George W. Bush and many of his top officials collapses and files the largest bankruptcy petition in US history. Thousands of its workers cannot sell their shares and lose millions in savings and pension funds.
Somehow, however, some of its executives managed to get rid of an estimated US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) of their own shares before the crash. Criminal inquiries are under way and Attorney-General John Ashcroft has formally disqualified himself from the probe.
There are missing papers, too. Remarkably, leading audit firm Arthur Anderson has admitted destroying Enron documents and wiping computer files. But the hottest bit is the expanding web of calls made between Enron executives and senior Bush officials - including Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
Embattled chairman Kenneth Lay urged intervention from the Bush team to stop a downgrade by rating agencies. Other executives asked for help to pressure bankers to free up credit in the firm's final days.
The White House insists the requests were ignored, but it is not out of the woods yet. The links are too deep and diverse and there is already an All the President's Men feel. All it lacks is a Watergate-style media tag.
Consider the following. Enron has been the biggest corporate donor of Mr Bush's political career dating back to 1978. In the 2000 election alone, the firm gave US$74,000 to his election campaign. Mr Ashcroft was another big beneficiary for his own Senate races.
The company - a keen energy de-regulator, naturally - had been involved in private discussions with Vice-President Dick Cheney over energy policy.
Furthermore, Mr Bush's chief economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsay, and Trade Representative Bob Zoellick have had previous spells on an advisory board to the firm, earning US$50,000 in annual retainers.
When the Bush team walked into town, there was simply no better connected firm in the capital. That said, Mr Bush's officials are winning early praise for openness. Aides are scrambling to confirm the various links while stressing they lead to no irregularities or poor governance. Quite how much of the mud sticks and where the criminal investigations go obviously remain to be seen.
There is the prospect of at least five congressional probes on top of Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
Democrats also have to deal with the fact that Enron shelled out US$640,000 to them as well during the last election cycle.
They have a history of never quite handling such scandals as well as they should.
Whichever way it goes, the whiff of scandal is enough to ensure that business is at last getting back to normal. Mr Bush is now one of the most popular presidents in American history, polls suggest. He may well need all of that support through some dramatic days ahead.
Greg Torode is the Post's Washington correspondent
