Oh, the stories he could tell!

There'll be no more White House sleepovers, if indicted Bush crony Kenneth Lay decides to tell all.

By Robert Bryce

Jul 8, 2004 | Now that former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay has been indicted for his role in the company's downfall (the specific charges are to be unsealed Thursday), the question that needs to be asked is: Will he turn against the Bushes?

Lay recently told the New York Times that it was a "tougher decision not to indict me than to indict me." Indeed, for the Bush administration, Lay's indictment is the perfect Machiavellian political move. Once the presumably humbled, handcuffed Lay has been paraded in front of the news media, Justice Department prosecutors are likely to give statements to the press saying, in effect, that they're going after all of the Enron miscreants -- even the ones who are friends of President Bush and his father.

But what if Lay responds with his own Machiavellian move? Others crossed by George W. Bush have decided to speak out rather than stand by quietly. Paul O'Neill did so after he was forced out as treasury secretary. The Bush administration's chief of counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, also emerged as a critic. Both men wrote bestselling books and got a measure of revenge. Lay could do the same. And while his brigade of lawyers would obviously advise him to keep quiet, Lay could choose to ignore them. He doesn't have much to lose.

The grand jury that issued his indictment took more than two years to return a true bill. It's unlikely that it will be able to hit him with additional charges out of spite. Furthermore, the man President Bush used to call "Kenny Boy" is already a pariah in Houston, a town he used to own. He has become something of a recluse -- shuttling between his lavish condo in the heart of Houston's exclusive River Oaks neighborhood and a lavish office nearby. He'll never get another job in corporate America. As a political player, his future prospects are nonexistent. So why not provide an inside look at the way politics is really played in a place like Enron -- a company that, for years, was Bush's biggest career patron?

Lay could dish the dirt on several important topics: the Karl Rove-brokered push that resulted in Enron paying Christian conservative turned super-lobbyist Ralph Reed $300,000; Lay's dealings with secretary of state turned super-lobbyist James Baker; why Enron hired Ed Gillespie, the man who now heads the Republican National Committee; the reason for Lay's decision to allow the Bushes to use Enron's fleet of airplanes as their own; what happened in those meetings with Dick Cheney and his energy task force; and what really happened with the California energy crisis.

In 1997, Rove, Texas Gov. Bush's closest political advisor, went to someone at Enron and asked that person to hire Reed, who was just leaving his job as head of the Christian Coalition. The Enron gig was very important for Reed. As one of his first clients, Enron gave his new outfit, Century Strategies, instant credibility. It also put Reed squarely on the Bush/Rove/Lay team. And in those days, as Bush was cranking up his presidential run, having Reed on his side was critically important.

Lay could explain why Enron decided to hire Reed. He could tell us whether Rove offered him any quid pro quo. He could also offer his opinion on whether Reed was worth the expense and describe exactly what Reed did for Enron. Finally, he could explain why, just a few months before Enron filed for bankruptcy, Reed was given an additional contract, this one paying him $30,000 per month plus expenses.

While Reed was a good ally for Enron, the really big-name lobbyist was Baker. Lay hired the former secretary of state (then back in Houston) in early 1993, just 33 days after the first Bush administration left the White House. Lay put Baker to work lobbying for contracts in Kuwait, Turkey, Qatar and Turkmenistan. But it's not at all clear that Baker knew what he was doing. One former Enron employee who specialized in developing power plants told me that Baker didn't know anything about the electric power business and that the only reason Lay hired Baker was that he wanted to be Baker's pal.

In fact, Baker and Lay did become chums. A short time after Baker went on Enron's payroll, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University began awarding the prestigious Enron Prize -- an honor that soon was bestowed on a variety of Bush family friends, including Colin Powell, Mikhail Gorbachev and, just before Enron's bankruptcy, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.

Lay could tell us what Greenspan said when he refused to accept the crystal trophy and cash award that came with the Enron Prize. He could also divulge another secret: the amount of money that winners of the Enron Prize have received.

Next Page: Why was Enron so eager to fly the Bushes around the country?

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