The Sweetheart Relationship Between "Kenny Boy" and W

Enron scumbag/criminal/conman Kenneth Lay has just been clobbered with a stiff sentence for his role in ruining that corporation and destroying the financial security of thousands of Enron employees. Now, this article reminds us, once again, of the long and intimate relationship between Lay and his main man, the Boy King:

As a "Bush Pioneer" in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election, Lay was a key member of the Bush campaign's fund-raising inner circle. Under Lay's leadership, Enron ultimately gave Bush $550,025, making the corporation the Texan's No. 1 career patron at the time the 2000 election campaign began, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Lay personally pumped almost $400,000 into Republican hard- and soft-money funds, while Enron slipped another $1.5 million into the GOP's soft-money cesspool.

But that was just the beginning. Lay sent a letter to Enron executives urging them to contribute to Bush's campaign. More than 100 of them -- including Skilling, a major Bush giver since 1993, when he cut his first $5,000 check to GW's gubernatorial campaign -- did just that. Dozens of spouses wrote, including "homemaker" and frequent $10,000 donor Linda Lay, gave as well, making the Enron "family" a prime source of the money that gave Bush his early advantage over Republican rivals such as Arizona Senator John McCain.

All told, it is estimated that, over the years prior the company's bankruptcy, Lay, his company and its employees contributed close to $2 million to fund George W. Bush's political rise.

Yes, folks, Enron was Bush's Number One financial backer. Sort of one criminal promoting the other, don't you think? Later, Bush would deny that he and Lay were friends or that Lay received benefits from his association with Bush.

But the facts say otherwise. From Public Citizen, in regard to the California energy crisis of 2001, a "crisis" engineered solely and completely by right-wing Republican thieves:

Among the power companies found guilty of energy market manipulation, Enron exercised tremendous influence over the Bush Administration’s hands-off policy towards the California energy crisis. Enron paid the DC lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie more than half a million dollars in the first seven months of 2001 to lobby the "Executive Office of the President" on the "California electric crisis", according to the lobbying disclosure report filed with Congress on April 10, 2001. Ed Gillespie, the “Gillespie” in Quinn Gillespie and former communications director at the RNC, was a top Bush campaign advisor and ran the U.S. Department of Commerce for the first 30 days of the Bush presidency. Enron lobbied against bi-partisan efforts to re-regulate the Western electricity market through price controls.

Just as Enron was paying Gillespie $75,000 a month lobbying Congress and the White House against price controls, the Bush Administration aggressively took Enron's position. On numerous occasions, President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, their various spokespeople and cabinet officials took an aggressive stance against price controls. In fact, the Bush Administration held firm against price controls even against the advice of top Republicans in Congress.

Yes, Kenny Boy has finally received his comeuppance. Now it's time to destroy the career of his best friend and chief beneficiary.