Arthur Andersen and the Justice Dept will share the blame if thousands of employees needlessly suffer and lose their jobs. How could the AA management have allowed its staff to sign off on Enron's financial shenanigans, and even worse, to shred tons of Enron documents in their Houston office?? It's very hard to believe that senior management was totally unaware of both AA's long term role in aiding and abetting Enron's shady financial accounting and the large scale document shreding operation. If the gutless cowards running AA had their employees' and partners' interest at heart they would have fallen on their swords, arranged a quick sale and a change in management, and the majority of the good and innocent employees of Arthur Andersen would now be happily employed by Ernst & Young, or Deloitte Touche, or somebody else.

What's galling about the government's actions is that they clearly don't give a damn if Arthur Andersen survives or not, if the employees lose their jobs or not, and they've painted the entire firm with such a broad brush that suitors have been scared off from what the public incorrectly perceives as a totally corrupt firm. Plus they've even refused to allow AA mangement to defend themselves and the company before the grand jury. Meanwhile AA continues to lose clients and in is increasing danger of total collapse.

Is AA senior management as evil as the government contends or as innocent as the company claims? Obviously the truth is somewhere in the middle, and varies by individual, but that's small comfort to the partners and the employees who'll be brushing up their resumes in the near future.