Enron Connections

This "Enron really got all its support from Clinton not Bush" missive landed in my e-mail box today. It is another example of selective use of facts to misrepresent the truth; it also throws in a few plain untruths just to muddy the waters.

Let's look at the paragraphs in the e-mail, one-by-one. The e-mail text is in italics.

This is an interesting bit of information that you don't hear much about in the media ---

Not in 2004. But these factoids were debunked in 2002 reporting -- well, foreign news reporting, anyway. Hold on tight, here we go:

a.. Enron's chairman did meet with the president and the vice president in the Oval Office.

From Enron's Pawns: How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron's Globalization Game (2002, pdf):
In his own words, in a transcript of an interview with Frontline, Ken Lay discusses meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney but said he meet only with Secretaries of Energy and Treasury during the Clinton era. (p 20)

From the London Guardian (2002):
Enron was so close to the bosom of the administration that Lay and other executives were called to the White House for six meetings with Cheney and his staff - the last one only a week before the company made the staggering announcement that it was slashing shareholder equity by $1.2bn.

From Enron's Pawns: How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron's Globalization Game (pdf):
• February: Enron CEO Ken Lay meets with Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney's energy task force modifies proposal to include mention of need to boost India's oil and gas production.
• March: Lay meets with Cheney again.
• April: Lay gives Cheney a memo outlining his suggestions for how to address the nation's energy needs. Among other things, Lay asks Cheney to hold off on price caps in California. Within weeks of meeting with Lay, Cheney issues a statement opposing price caps.

b.. Enron gave $420,000 to the president's party over three years.

From 1993-2001, Enron executives gave nearly $2 million to George W. Bush personally. (London Guardian)

In the 2000 election cycle, Enron gave $2,501,058 to political causes -- 11% polical action committees, 67% soft money, 22% individuals. Three quarters of the money went to Republican candidates: almost $2 million. In one year. This is more than double its 1998 contributions and almost twice as much as the number two contributing energy company.

In the 2000 campaign cycle, Ken Lay and his wife gave $420,010 to political causes: 96% went to Republicans.

From the Seattle PI (2001):
The company (Enron) and its employees have given more than anyone else to Bush's two campaigns for governor, his unsuccessful House campaign in 1978 and last year's race for the White House, according to the watchdog Center for Public Integrity.

Enron and its employees gave $113,800 to Bush's presidential campaign, his 10th most generous contributor; $250,000 to the Republican National Convention host committee; and $300,000 to the Presidential Inauguration Committee.