no threads about white house and GOP links to Enron?!??

Bush rules, Clinton drools.

 

Alot of people lost their retirement funds when Enron went down. The execs apparently knew about the tank and sold out (and made millions), but left the employees - and the stockholders, in turn - hanging.

There was apparently a lockout on everyone's 401k in the company. Personnel movements, they were replacing their finance staff as it happened. Coincidentally. Definite turf for a criminal (fraud) investigation...

Did the execs know about the tank, and misrepresent it to the employees and stockholders? I think that's what the case will turn on.

Personally, I think the allegation that it was a Repub conspiracy is bogus. Alot of Democrats made $ off of the "jumpship", too. I think it's more a matter of corporate ripoff than political ripoff...

 

I really don't have an opinion on it either way, except to say that if it involved Enron and crazy orgies with animals, then everyone would be freaking out...no one likes to talk about shady stuff they don't really understand, sex is more up everyone's alley.

However, I laughed in my U.S. News and World Report this week when they were pointing their fingers at Democrats who have pointed their fingers at Republicans who have recieved campaign contributions from Enron. They pointed out that many Democrats have received contributions from Enron, and if they were willing to say that receiving money=guilt, then they should probably shut up. The funny thing is, the highest any Democrat they listed received overall was $11,000, and that was Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, later in the issue, they report that George W. Bush has received over $600,000 from Enron. Hmmm, that's close. Hmmm, that's some liberal media for ya.

Again, I'm not going to form any opinion on the controversey other than this...I'll give the administration the benefit of the doubt, until the special prosecuter's report comes out showing that Bush sodomized Lay with a cigar. Also, this is just an uninformed prediction, Cheney or Rove will resign because of this.

 

eww...i think i might have to go straight now

 

sirhangover,

If you are trying to imply that this board is right leaning overall, I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

 

Amazing. RM95 can find fault with Clinton and the Repubs on the same issue, and yet still blame Bush.

Er, um, Cheney. I guess... Yeah, that's who we should fire!

 

I'm assuming all the people who lost their 401K's and such will eventually do some kind of class action lawsuit or something, right. I mean that isn't somehow not applicable in this situation is it. Anyway, on the list of people it seems most of them ended their Enron associations when Bush became president (which was a year ago) so now it's a question of when all the higher-ups knew Enron was sinking and wouldn't tell anyone. Did they know a year ago or was it only 6 months ago or something like that.

 

They probably would have known this quarter. When the quarter started, that is.

I would assume that the bankruptcy filed by the corporation would give it some protection against damages, so the employees and stockholders might be f*ked. But I don't know... I can't imagine any judge or jury not allocating them some funds (class action or otherwise) if fraud is proven.

Lawyers? Help on this question?

 

My opinion....take it for what it's worth...

Enron was a huge corporate scandal that epitomizes greed. Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and their buddies made off with millions while Enron workers lost everything.

There are many ties between the Bush administration and Enron, however there is still no evidence of wrongdoing by Bush or members of the administration.

On the other hand....

If we spent $60 million investigating the Bush Administration and the Enron fiasco like we spent $60 million investigating Clinton and Whitewater, I'm sure that some misdeed by Bush would be found and impeachment charges could be brought against him.

And I'm also quite sure that whatever was found to impeach Bush on would have nothing to do with Enron, just like what Clinton was impeached on had nothing to do with Whitewater!

 

I'm surprised at you sir, are you hung over? At a time like this with terrorists in the world, how can you question any action of the Commander and Chief and his campaign contrutors and buddies?

 

That's easy, and it has nothing to do with last night's cocktails.

I question everything and everyone!

 

I love to see the 60 million figure thrown around like that is a significant amount of money in D.C. During Clinton's last year, Medicare funds mismanagement accounted for a 100 billion loss to taxpayers, but does any Clinton supporter wants to talk about that?

Anyway, the Democrats are starting to look silly attacking Bush over the Enron affair. Democrats also took money from Enron, and had meetings with Enron officials before the collapse (including Joe <b>Lie</b>berman, who is running a Senate inquiry into this mess).

The sad reality is that the Democrats are not investigating Enron in search of truth. This truly is a witch hunt in search of a scandel.

Fortunately, the public is smart enough to see through these transparent politics, as Bush's gallup poll numbers are unchanged over the last month.

 

So you must be saying that the Democrats' investigation of Enron is a carbon copy of the Republicans' investigation of Whitewater.

Well, I agree with you!

 

If hundreds of people start to flee the country, take the 5th, or turn up dead , then we can start making comparisons.

 

Man, you seriously are confirming my past accusations regarding your reading ability.

For one thing, I didn't say we "should" fire Cheney. I've been making this <B>uninformed</B> prediction based on pretty much nothing other than the ties between Enron and the Bush administration and the fact that Cheney's been in "hiding" for some time. It's more of a conspiracy theorist prognostication than anything else. Again, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt in this.

As far as finding fault with Clinton and Repubs, more specifically, Bush, I never even said I found fault at all. I just found it laughable that a magazine would even start to compare the $11,000 given to Clinton by Enron to the $600,000 given to Bush. I don't like our system, but as long as Bush didn't do anything unethical based on these contributions, I can't really find fault in him taking them-he's just playing the game.

Nice try misrepresenting my post. I'm pretty sure Kagy will be joining us anytime soon...

 

My friend, you are living in a fantasy world.

 

<B>Did the execs know about the tank, and misrepresent it to the employees and stockholders? I think that's what the case will turn on.

Personally, I think the allegation that it was a Repub conspiracy is bogus. Alot of Democrats made $ off of the "jumpship", too. I think it's more a matter of corporate ripoff than political ripoff...</B>

I think Enron execs are going to get in deep trouble fairly soon (along with Andersen execs). The latest memo coming from a partner is pretty damning. It basically made it clear that Lay & Co. knew about problems and refused / didn't care to act.

The fact that Enron didn't pay taxes in 4 out of the last 5 years doesn't help them either (http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/17/companies/enron_taxes/).

Where the White House could get dragged in is the question of how much they knew. According to what I read yesterday, it has now come up now that the Administration gave Enron advice on how to deal with it's faltering financial position several months before the collapse. If that's the case, then it's very possible that Administration members knew about the financial fraud, or at least that the company was lying to the markets and employees when they claimed all was great ... in which case, did they not have some type of obligation to make it public and help protect Enron's employees? That will be an interesting question as we learn more about exactly what the Admin knew.

If Enron used its influence w/ the White House to keep the SEC out of it, etc, then heads are gonna roll.

 

Yep. Looks like everyone might be busted:

Andersen Knew of Enron's Worries in Feb., Memo Shows

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020117/ts/enron_dc.html

And RM95, I kin red. (That seems to be your favorite slander - 'illiterate moron'). You just seem to have this nasty habit of writing something and then later on saying 'But that's not what I meant, illiterate moron'... Kagy was definitely right about that.

 

At least in that last thread, Kagy had some good evidence. I didn't write what I was thinking clearly enough (shouldn't have said "we"), but here, you made an assumption about what I wrote that was entirely wrong...Major can attest to that as we were discussing this very issue earlier this week.

Kagy's right, I do have that problem. It's not malicious in nature, I'm just not very careful when I type sometimes...it makes sense to me, but not to everyone else. However, here I was sure not to type anything that would make me look anti-Bush in this case. You very conveniently ignored my "giving the administration the benefit of the doubt" and took my "uninformed prediction" to mean that I think that Cheney should be fired. Also, you took my liberalism and assumed that by posting something I found humorous (comparing $11,000 to $600,000) to mean that I was being anti-Bush. In fact, you did the same thing that I found so funny in U.S. News and World Report.