It is good to hear that justice has been served. Former ENRON executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skillings have been found guilty in a court of law in what can only be described as a decisive jury verdict.
But there is more to it than meets the eye. I wonder if you can recall hearing the constant, snarky remarks during the 2004 US presidential campaign, or the Martha Stewart insider-trading fiasco, that US President Bush and his minions were quick to mete out justice on lesser-knowns or lesser-crimes, but were flat-out protecting ENRON from prosecution (it was a popular Howard Dean mantra). Martha Stewart was in jail, critics announced incredulously, while Ken Lay walked about freely. It was the perfect stuff for fomenting anti-Bush sentiments.
Today, how things have changed. It appears that the Bush Administration has brought a powerful conviction upon the now impotent power company, and this despite the near-constant reminders that ENRON contributed money to the Bush campaign. Martha went to jail for a few months; she did her time and is now, once again, flourishing. But there is hardly a doubt that should Lay and Skillings get their chance at flourishing, they will do so as very old men. Their time has come, and it is long.
But there must be some sort of liberal interpretation in all of this, no? Surely it can't simply be that justice was served, that campaign contributions in Bush's case are shown not to have been bribes, that ENRON's contributions hardly made the President's notice? No, of course it can't be that easy. Daily Kos' Darksyde has posted moments ago his prediction: President Bush is going to pardon his buddy Ken Lay. Not that there is any evidence Bush is going to pardon anybody. To do so would not only be scandalous, it would be nefarious (and bad politics for Republicans). No one pardons bad guys like that. No one, of course, other than Bill Clinton, who did indeed pardon a bad guy, Marc Rich. Not that any of that matters. It's just good to make note of the sort of pattern set by that singular President who surely inspired so many writers† at Daily Kos.
Peace.
©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.
†There is no suggestion here that Daily Kos' Darksyde was a Clinton supporter.
Technorati tags: Marc Rich, Enron, Enron, Enron, Jeffrey Skilling, Martha Stewart, Daily Kos
1 comment:
Thank you, DarkSyde, for the clarification. It was unfair of me to suggest that all dKos enthusiasts are like-minded. I knew you weren't (or so your profile suggests) in the tank, so to speak, for all things left. I just pray that people realize that readers here are not in the tank for all things right.
Of course, I hope we are all in the tank for being right, if you know what I mean.
Peace to you,
BG
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