Soft money, hard lesson.(Bush administration and Enron Corp.)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 28-JAN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

The Bush Administration's reputation for never letting the outside world know what it's thinking is well deserved, but it's a safe bet that last week it was feeling wronged about Enron. The White House announced -- that's announced, not concealed -- that Kenneth Lay and other Enron brass had phoned two Cabinet secretaries and one under-secretary in October, as the company was starting its death rattle. As a reward for this candor, Washington went on full scandal alert, with the press and Congress demanding to be told who in the Administration knew what when and what they did about it. The problem with this line of attack is that when Enron got to the point of really needing some influence, it discovered that it hadn't bought any after all: the officials the company called evidently did nothing, and they seem to have made a point of not telling President...

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