The Enron Trap: And how to stay out of it

Here's a worrisome scenario for the White House as it tries to navigate its way through the Enron mess: Weeks from now, there's still no evidence that anyone in the administration did anything wrong, yet the White House finds itself in a confrontation with Congress over contacts with Enron. Democratic senators demand information, the president refuses to give it up, and subpoenas fly. Legal battles follow, and the White House ultimately loses-all without any credible suggestion of wrongdoing.

It might seem farfetched, and indeed there appears to be great confidence in the White House that it won't happen. But the president's increasingly hard-line stance against releasing information related to Enron could make it a reality.

After initially sending out word that Enron chief Kenneth Lay called treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, commerce secretary Donald Evans, and a few others as the company was going down, the White House now refuses to reveal whether there were any more calls or contacts. Spokesman Ari Fleischer says the president's staff isn't even trying to find out if there were any more calls or contacts. "There is no hint there of any wrongdoing," Fleischer recently told a reporter who asked if the White House was doing an internal review of its dealings with Enron. "If you have any information, any evidence you would like to bring forward about potential wrongdoing, we will do our best to track it down for you. But other than that, I liken it to a fishing expedition." With that, Fleischer not only refused to say more, but also raised the bar for future inquiries. From now on, if anyone can come up with a specific allegation of wrongdoing, the White House will respond. If not, don't expect any information.

All of which, of course, prompts the question of whether there were any more Enron contacts. While it's possible that the calls already made public were the only communications between Enron and the administration, it's also possible-perhaps probable-that there were more. "I think there were a lot of phone calls to a lot of people," says one former Enron insider (who wasn't privy to them). "There's a corporate pattern of Enron as an astute political entrepreneur. If Al Gore had won the election, Enron officials would have been on the phone with whoever could help them." Why wouldn't the same be true with Bush?

The former Enron insider also raises the possibility, so far unnoticed in the press, that there were indirect contacts between Enron and the White House-someone at Enron calling a friend of the administration who then called the White House. A number of people close to the White House have ties to Enron, so there are several possible channels of communication. Fleischer himself seemed to confirm the possibility of more contacts when he said, early in the controversy, "I think it should surprise no one that people in the administration receive phone calls from people who are either in business or in unions. It happens every day."

So far, no one other than reporters and a few House Democrats-most prominently California representative Henry Waxman, who has been waging a one-man war on the White House-has asked for more information. Joe Lieberman and Carl Levin, the two key Democratic investigators in the Senate, have studiously avoided saying they'll ask the White House for anything. "They're being extremely careful, and that's appreciated," says a top GOP Senate aide. "These chairmen are not holding political press conferences and trying to point fingers. They have to preserve their own credibility."

Levin has been particularly judicious-which is a good thing for Republicans, because as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he is the only man in the Senate with unilateral subpoena power. Although he has had many chances to threaten the White House with a subpoena, he has so far declined to do so. But at the same time, Levin has made clear that he wishes the administration would be more forthcoming. "I think it's better for everybody to kind of lay out whatever connections, contacts, people had or have, and if it's in the past, just simply say it," Levin said on CBS January 20. "People understand that there are going to be contacts and connections with various groups and entities in this country. Just say it, get it over with, get it behind you."

If Levin ever decides to demand Enron information from the White House, he'll probably start with a separate but related subject: Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. For nearly a year, Cheney has been locked in a dispute with the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, over the names of outsiders the task force consulted while crafting the administration's energy policy. The GAO, acting at Waxman's request, first asked for the information and later, when Cheney refused, threatened to take the vice president to court. Cheney stood his ground, citing what he said would be a chilling effect on future government consultations if the task-force meetings were made public.