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Press Shifts Into Scandal Mode Over Enron
Friday, January 11, 2002
(9:00 AM ET)
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer

The White House spent much of the day trying to distance the president from a torrent of bad news about the fall of Enron, the Houston energy conglomerate.
-- From The New York Times


There was a moment yesterday afternoon when it became clear that the Enron collapse is finally achieving full-fledged, heavy-breathing scandal status.

Ari Fleischer was conducting his daily briefing, and for once the flood of questions wasn't about Afghanistan or anthrax. The press corps was going full blast, reeling off 52 questions about Enron – specifically the White House acknowledgement hours earlier that CEO Ken Lay's company gave two Bush Cabinet officers an early warning about its imminent meltdown.

Suddenly, the booming voice of CBS's Bill Plante filled the briefing room. "Enron is the largest single donor to George Bush's political career -- from his house race, to his governorship, to his presidential run," Plante declared. "So there is certainly the appearance here of a possible conflict of interest. Why wouldn't the president want to know what was going on with this company?"

Fleischer replied that if Bush had gotten involved, "you would be making just the opposite charge, that he took action because of his prior relationship with Mr. Lay. And that is not the case here."

The onslaught continued. "The president is not in any way disappointed that he wasn't informed?" one reporter asked. Another insisted that "you didn't answer the question, Ari."

We have reached critical mass.
(More: WashingtonPost.com News Source)
2002 © The Washington Post Company.

Dan