Unvarnished
Indeed
January
30, 2002
by James May
Did Dick and Dubya really expect to receive "unvarnished"
advice on energy policy from Enron? I would hope that they
are more intelligent than that. Assuming that they were intelligent
enough to recognize they wouldn't (and surely didn't) receive
"unvarnished" advice, then why the heck are they trying to
convince us that because of executive privilege, they did?
Could they perhaps think that we are not intelligent enough
to recognize this simple fact?
Now it goes without saying that the administration should
seek advice on energy policy on such a large energy corporation.
Why however is it so important to deny me the advice that
my president is receiving? Why can't I know? Am I too stupid
to understand what Dick, Dubya and Kenny Boy (I mean, Mr.
Lay) were talking about? If they were having secret conversations
knowing that I could never know what they were saying because
of executive privilege, then I really want to know
now what they discussed!
Perhaps they wish us to believe that executive privilege
is needed to protect Enron's comments from falling into the
hands of their competitors. What unvarnished and potentially
devastating information could Enron have shared with Dick
and Dubya that executive privilege would be needed to protect
Enron, even now after it's sudden collapse?
Besides, if Enron had such an enormously important and secretive
conversation, why would they want to talk to Texas energy
guru Dubya? What's more important, if they did trust Dubya
that much to have such a discussion, what does that say about
how tight the relationship must have been between Kenny Boy
and the administration?
There most certainly is something unvarnished going on though.
You don't have to be a seasoned politician (luckily for Dubya)
to recognize that exercising executive privilege so early
on in the investigation is a major mistake. Even in the early
stages of Alzheimer's, Reagan had the good sense to stall,
and then give a good deal of nothing important to Congress.
I personally wouldn't be surprised to find out in the end
that the reason no obvious beneficial links can be found between
the administration and Enron, is that the information they
wish to protect with executive privilege will show a scenario
which may go something like this: The administration probably
had big plans to deal Enron a good hand through the new energy
policy, but Enron wanted more - needed more - and needed it
fast. In fact Kenny Boy probably laid his losing hand on the
table for Dick and Dubya and gave them a clear and unvarnished
look.
Dick and Dubya got scared of Enron and their fuzzy math accounting,
and not only didn't give more, withdrew anything significant
from them completely. That would explain why Enron got nothing,
and furthermore would explain why Enron fell so suddenly!
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