Smoking Gun in Enrongate
Let the Impeachment Begin?

By: Mike Hersh

If Curtis Hebert is Right, Bush Broke the Law - Again.

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Curtis Hebert, Jr. is going public with explosive allegations. Hebert says Enron CEO Ken Lay - the largest contributor to George Walker Bush - made improper demands.

When Lay threatened that his close friend Bush, would fire Hebert unless he obeyed, Hebert refused. Lay ordered Bush to fire Hebert, and Bush complied in August 2001. Hebert has been on record about all of this for months, but he recently made a new, even more explosive charge. Hebert says Bush also let Lay INTERVIEW him and other candidates for FERC Chairman in the first place!

In a nutshell: Enron gave Bush $millions to sponsor his rise from a losing candidate for the US House to the "leader of the free world". In return, Bush gave Enron "hire and fire" authority over the FERC, and performed other favors in return for money. This directly and personally ties Bush to the Enrongate scandal in all its illegality.

Bush betrayed his oath to the American people when he let Ken Lay hand pick regulatory watchdogs we entrusted to prevent the massive meltdown that cost Americans $billions. This makes letting the fox guard the hen house look like tender loving fiduciary care.

This is nothing new for Bush, who fired Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC) director Eliza May in retaliation for her investigations of Service Corporation International and its CEO Robert Waltrip. Waltrip - like Enron's Lay - is a longtime Bush patron.

Bush lied under oath regarding this political quid-pro-quo, then he and SCI settled a lawsuit to keep May quiet. Texas taxpayers picked up $155,000 of the hush money tab, while SCI paid May the other $55,000, according to a Dallas Morning News story published 11/09/2001. Texans know this scandal as "Funeralgate".

The Rule of Law requires that Bush testify under oath about Funeralgate, his and his Brother John Ellis Bush's Votergate activities during the 2000 election in Florida, and Enrongate. We already know George Walker Bush has an established pattern of helping his friends and backers evade regulation and possibly even criminal charges!

We must demand action now, because Enron and its accountants at Anderson have been destroying evidence by the box-load. We must know what Bush did, and why he did it.

Enrongate is not just a Bush scandal: this is a Republican scandal. Other top GOP officials like VP Dick Cheney, White House advisor Karl Rove, House Leader Dick Armey and Sen. Phil Gramm also helped Enron plunder and evade regulation. They helped Enron rip off consumers, investors and employees.

Ignore Republican and media efforts to spin this as a business scandal or a bipartisan scandal. This is not about the generous, but legal contributions Enron made: 73% to Republicans, 27% to Democrats. This is a GOP political scandal because Republicans helped Enron pay no taxes in four out of five years, while hiding profits in offshore accounts. Despite the hype, no Democrat did anything of the sort.

Even with all these special favors, golden boy Ken Lay ran Enron into the ground. Adding insult to injury, if not perfidy to perjury, the Republican "stimulus porkage" aims to give Enron and Lay even MORE of your tax money.

This Republican scandal exposes GOP corruption at the highest levels, but more profoundly, it reveals the bankruptcy of the GOP "government is the problem" ideology. It blows the lid off Bush's Enronomics, and his plan to Enronitize Social Security, energy and other policies.

I am currently working on another article concerning these fundamental failures in Republican philosophy. For now, back to the immediate scandal. Already, Armey and Gramm are quitting politics to escape Enrongate, but ending their careers to enjoy tax-paid pensions may not be enough to satisfy justice and the Rule of Law.

These top Republicans - all outspoken critics of President Clinton's conduct in office - should welcome full-scale investigations into their own apparent influence pedaling. As should House Whip Tom DeLay, VP Cheney, George Walker Bush, and other GOP leaders. As should Ken Lay, Sen. and Gramm's wife Wendy - a former regulator turned Enron board member.

If they broke the law, they should pay the penalty. That's been the Republican mantra for nearly a decade. Let them prove they meant it by volunteering to testify before the US Senate - under oath, on national television. If they're innocent, what do they have to fear? They should welcome the opportunity to come clean and set the record straight.

Despite their nonstop pontificating about others' lacking accountability, I'm not confident these Republicans will step up and do the right thing. We must take it upon ourselves to demand justice and uphold the Rule of Law. Call the media and your elected officials NOW to make sure they understand the real issues in Enrongate, Funeralgate, and Votergate. Let the investigations, perhaps even impeachment begin!