Enron cuff links.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - White House links to Enron - Brief Article - Editorial

Right about now, Bush's Enron cuff links are getting awfully embarrassing, and he just can't get them off.

Problem is, his Administration is entangled with Enron from head to toe. Lay was the single biggest contributor to the Bush Presidential campaign. Vice President Dick Cheney lobbied the Indian government for Lay and personally met with Lay while producing the energy policy for the Administration. Lay's staff met at least five other times with Cheney's energy panel, which just so happened to favor Enron on seventeen different policies in its final report.

Karl Rove, Bush's Svengali, had more than $100,000 in Enron stock when he came to the White House. And he had that nice, little secret about helping to place Ralph Reed on the Enron payroll.

Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, was an Enron vice president when all the hanky-panky was going on. He owned more than $50 million in Enron stock, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Lawrence Lindsey, White House economic adviser, was a paid Enron consultant. Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, was an Enron advisory board member. And Attorney General John Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Justice Department's investigation because during his Senate run he received contributions from Enron.

Enron had the White House wired as no company before it, with the possible exception of United Fruit in Eisenhower's day.

Now if Bush had more than garbanzo beans for brains, he might come to the rational conclusion that the Enron scandal proves we need more regulation of corporations.

It was, after all, deregulation that let Enron dodge taxes in the United States by setting up more than 700 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands.

It was, after all, deregulation that let Enron peddle derivatives like crack cocaine.

It was, after all, deregulation that allowed...