Political theater

Perp walk images give Lay and Bush the upper hand.

I don't like the undercurrent and political theater obviously behind the Lay indictment, and the Ridge statements about potential al-Qaeda attacks on the American elections. Neither is what it seems. Both let Bush look like tough monster fighting guy. But the reality is the true scope of the corporate crime wave hardly will be touched, Lay eventually will come away scot-free, and the terrorism panic pedal will stay pushed to floor. Confusion over terror alerts will reign while Kerry will be cowed from taking on the president on either corporate crime or terror response. Caution to Democrats—voters will be made to feel like a vote for Kerry will be a vote to lay down before the terrorists in the manner of the Spanish. (Doesn't matter that that's really not what happened in Spain.)

Russell Mokhiber, the Corporate Crime Reporter guy, said yesterday on Democracy Now!, "I think it's a political victory for President Bush because despite the fact that we're seeing the greatest corporate crime spree in history despite the fact that the president...is tied at the hip with big business and specifically Enron and Ken Lay, the president is amazingly succeeding in taking corporate crime off the table in the campaign."

Mokhiber sees the Democrats as basically disinterested. I agree. You cannot yet find clear mention of white collar crime on the Kerry/Edwards website, just this pretty vague thing, deeply buried and not focused at all on the criminal stealing in which many corporations are engaged:

Our economy does well when our workers are doing well. Today, Americans who are working hard and playing by the rules are faced with higher health care costs, higher state taxes, higher college tuition and limited job opportunities. At the same time, many corporations are bending the rules and shirking their fair share of the burden - and the Bush Administration is rewarding those who break the rules with lucrative government contracts. Kerry will fight for a government that rewards those who work hard and play by the rules and challenges those who don’t. He will restore investor confidence with strong enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission and he will stop corporations from keeping bank Accounts in Countries like Bermuda to Avoid Paying Taxes.

In truth, the Ds are up to their necks in the same slime as the Republicans, just like they were during the 1980s S&L scandal. For a good historical view of Democratic integrity, look up the saga of former Texas U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House Jim Wright. His tenacious battle on behalf of S&L criminal Don Dixon led in large measure to his downfall at the hands of that other paragon of virtue, Newt Gingrich. Throughout those years, Democratic fundraisers led by the shifty Congressman Tony Coelho, were busily utilizing venues like Dixon's yacht, High Spirits, docked in the Potomac for euphoric parties where collections of ill-gotten treasures filled the war chests.

The exhaustive study on the S&L scandal, Inside Job, by Pizzo, Fricker, & Muolo (HarperPerennial Edition, 1991) will give all of the details to anyone who is interested. With that history and much, much more during the Clinton years, no one should be surprised that Democratic leadership is utterly disinterested in pursuing Republican criminality either yesterday or today. They would have to pursue themselves in the process. Meanwhile, it's better to concede corporate crime success to Bush rather than open themselves to scrutiny.

Getting back to Lay, in yesterday's indictment please note that Kenny Boy is not really being charged with the energy market manipulation and theft from ratepayers that became Enron's bread and butter. The Eichenwald/Newman story in the Times goes on to explain:

The majority of the charges in the indictment against Mr. Lay center on a series of what the government believes are false statements he made to investors, employees and accountants that painted a positive picture of the company's finances at a time when he was selling Enron stock.

Lying as defined under criminal statute will be hard to prove. Additional lies concerning a "water growth strategy" also will be "problematic for prosecutors."

Eichenwald was on the News Hour and basically reiterated that the prosecution has brought a case they're very likely to lose. (EICHENWALD: "[Lay's defense will say] ... none of the things he's charged with, you know, drove Enron under.")

The Republicans really know what they're doing on this one. It's that perp-walk footage that this is really about. After his exoneration, Kenny Boy will be able to retire to his golf game and nice whirlpools in his many expensive homes. Meanwhile, George W. Bush, crime fighter, will have obtained an electoral boost.