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Enron Thoughts before/after If the final sin is indifference, the second to last sin is ignorance. I suppose that would sum up the Congressional testimony of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling. Skilling is a smart polished man, and during the testimony it was easy to see why he was tabbed for the job. Clearly a man used to getting into tight spots and coming out unscathed on the other side. He befuddled some legislators, stonewalled others, outmanuvered and manipulated. And above all he was smooth and unrattled as he shifted blame to any Enron executive not present, maintaining at the time of his departure that all accounting practices were sound, all finances in good form when he left the mega-corporation with his golden parachute packed for him by the very men he seeks to shift the blame for the fiasco. This scandal envelopes us all, and will be a testament to the involvement of the public in its own affairs of government. In the old days, men like these were tarred and feathered. Today they sit in Capitol Hill and sneer with disdain at our governors which they have bought with thousands of dollars. Dollars which really should still be in pension plans of ageing baby-boomers across the country. Fraudlent in morality, but not in law, they sold them out to buy their freedom. Ultimately this speaks deeply of the political process, of camapiagn finance which badly needs reform, and the treasure trove of spoils that are generally won in any presedential election. The troph is loaded up, the pigs are still there, and every four years it gets emptied. Pigs are intelligent animals, as any pig farmer will tell you, simply lazy in manner, and much given to wallowing. This is highly analagous to modern day american politicians. If there is any doubt that many legislators are given to wallowing, and is a closet for more drunks and sex-feinds than most Promise Keepers meetings, I would point to a body of evidence beginning somewhere with Bob Packwood and ending with Gary Condit. A pig will do what it has to do to get by, so will a politician. So instead of straight judicial appointments, and handing out broad-based unmerited jobs, our politicians empty the troph by slyly appointing company executives to bureaucratic positions who can effect policy change to line the pockets of said company, like say Enron, making a grand return on a simple investment of 300,000 dollars to the winning Presidential campaign look like chump change. They almost got a contract for the Army's power needs. Think on that for a moment. They also got to select the administrator who was to be in charge of regulating their industry. This is much like allowing the criminals to hire the warden, and in many places in the country, this news should make many uneasy. But it remains to be seen, if the American public will take some responsibility for itself, and ask questions, show an interest in this scandal which has refused to take shape, helped in this endeavour in no small part by our own boughten legislators dodging any sort of line of questioning that would link our popular, yet unpopularly, elected President and his Administration to the happenings of Enron. All are guilty of the final two sins, and finding a way to fix the state of affairs will be a difficult task. This thing will turn if the GAO gets Cheney to comply and turn over the relevant information. Interest will be shown when it is made stunningly apparent that we as a people have been betrayed by our bosses, our leaders, and our own apathies.
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