Suddenly, giving away is all the rage, and it’s not a matter of charity but political survival. Post-Enron Washington is like post-Taliban Kabul: Everyone is shocked, shocked at what was going on in the capital until the tanks rolled in, and now everyone is frantically shaving his donor lists. Senators who are pledging to give away donations–usually to Enron employee victims’ funds–include Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain. Their aim is to buy back the privilege of moral indignation. “No bones about it,” McCain told NEWSWEEK. “I’m tainted by it, too.”
There was no meaculpa or return-to-sender from President George W. Bush. His aides insisted that they had neither been tainted nor guided by Enron, and there was no evidence that they had done anything illegal or even unseemly. Still, White House insiders behaved like people with something to hide, and the story was less about the substance of the contacts than their belated, grudging disclosure to the press.
The list was a lengthening one. On Jan. 11, a top administration aide denied that Commerce Secretary Don Evans had told White House officials about Enron’s shaky finances in October. In fact, Evans admitted Jan. 13, he had told chief of staff Andy Card. Last week it emerged that economic adviser Larry Lindsey, formerly a $50,000-a-year consultant to Enron, had conducted a study of the company’s weak condition. Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged that he’d touted the cause of an Enron power-plant project supported by Team Bush. Even so, the White House refused to release records of the Cheney Energy Task Force, while insisting it contained no favors for Enron.
The White House remained secure in the knowledge that Enron had tried to line all pockets, not just those in Bush’s trousers. Indeed, new evidence emerged daily of the company’s almost manic attempts at influence acquisition–from its support of the Houston Olympic Committee to a $50,000 payment to Paul Krugman, The New York Times’s economic columnist, who disclosed that he’d been paid to serve on an Enron advisory board. Last summer, NEWSWEEK has learned, Enron paid one of Al Gore’s closest allies, fund-raiser Johnny Hayes, to lobby Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe. The aim: to indirectly pressure California Gov. Gray Davis into backing off his attacks on Enron and other out-of-state energy companies. McAuliffe told Hayes to get lost. Enron later forked over $100,000 anyway–an apparent attempt to show ties to both parties.
Democrats hoped to gain some traction for attacks on the GOP. “This will remind people of where the Republicans’ loyalties lie,” said poll taker Harrison Hickman. Still, not all Democrats seemed eager to lead the charge (the most active Hill investigator seemed to be GOP Rep. Billy Tauzin). The real beneficiaries–if any–may only be those who can claim the title of “outsider.”
The first step toward that sainted status, McCain argues, is to accept the Enron mess as proof of the need for campaign-finance reform. His allies in the House are two votes short of the 218 they need to force a vote. McCain recorded phone-bank calls aimed at swing districts, and his aides recently asked Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to call two “undecideds” in the state. “Failure to pass this now will further lower respect for the two-party system,” said McCain, who flirts with running for president as an independent. “We’re piano players in the House of ill repute.” The music may have stopped for Enron, but the band is still playing in town.
