By Anthony Wade
I am starting to think lying is more than habitual with this President and his administration. It may very well be a form of illness. The latest is the White House denial of the closeness of the relationship between GW Bush and "Kenny-Boy" Lay.
When asked about the relationship, in light of today's indictment, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said:
"It has been "quite some time" since Bush and Lay talked with each other"
"He was a supporter in the past and he's someone that I would also point out has certainly supported Democrats and Republicans in the past"
"This president has worked to go after those wrongdoers and directed his administration to pursue those who are dishonest in the boardroom"
"The president has made it very clear that we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardroom. This administration worked to uncover abuses and scandals in the corporate arena. And certainly the president's concern is with those workers and other people who have been harmed by corporate wrongdoing"
Excuse me? Now, I don't pretend to know when the last time George called up "Kenny-Boy", but if Mr. McClellan expects us to believe this line of bovine excrement then maybe he should be reminded about the truth. GW Bush was in business with Ken Lay as far back as 1986. He has tried to lie about this before, like in 2002, when he tried to make it sound as if he only knew him casually and stated that Lay was actually a supporter of Ann Richards against Bush in 1994. The truth was that Lay had spent a great deal of time with Bush 5 years earlier, "quality time" as described by Lay. Another quote by Lay is "I strongly supported Bush when he ran for governor of Texas both times." In fact, Bush sent Lay a letter in 1997 in which he referred to Lay as one of his "old friends." By the way, the "supported Ann Richards nonsense is also a lie. In 1994, Lay and his wife contributed $12,500 to Richards. They gave $47,500 to Bush and Enron's political action committee gave Bush $146,500 (the PAC gave Richards $19,500). Lay was not done yet though, as from 1994 on, Lay and his wife gave $122,500 for the two Bush gubernatorial campaigns; $100,000 for his inauguration; $250,000 for the Bush I presidential library. Enron and Enron executives gave $736,680 to Bush for his political campaigns, his election recount, and his inauguration. Ya, I wish I had casual acquaintances that treated me so indifferently. So, now that we have dispatched with this pathetic attempt to distance the President from this indicted criminal, lets move onto the remainder of the lies on behalf of Mr. Bush. Now, technically, McClellan is correct to state that Lay did "support" both democrats and republicans, but lets take a closer look to see the deception. From 1989-2001, Lay and his wife contributed $796,110 to republicans and a paltry $86,470 for democrats. Additionally, Enron and its employees gave $3 million to Republican candidates from 1998 to 2001 and $1.1 million to Democrats. Now, lets be serious; it is quite obvious what side of the aisle Mr. Lay is on and who is in his pockets, no matter how much Mr. McClellan wishes it was not so. The last two comments made by McClellan are laughable at best. The Bush administration has been a bastion of corruption in the boardroom, and a boon for CEO waste. The only significant person tried was Martha Stewart. We have seen dramatic abuses by such companies as Global Crossing, World Com, Enron, Halliburton, all of which have contributed mightily to the Bushies and their party, and none of which have been made to pay for their corporate indiscretions, until Lay was indicted today. I might add that it is years since the Enron fiasco and only today is Lay indicted. No, this is another example of this administration wanting to talk in sound bites, misdirect, and flat out lie. This President is a liar. He has lied about tax cuts for the rich stimulating the economy, Afghanistan, civil liberties, Iraq, WMD, nuclear capabilities of Saddam, yellow cake in the Niger, corporate responsibility, the deficit, the economic recovery which is jobless and fabricated, education, the environment, arsenic levels, clear skies for more pollution, healthy forests initiative which should be called "no tree left behind", energy policies decided by campaign contributors and then classified, Halliburton and the fleecing of America at the expense of our soldiers, health care, new Medicare laws which only benefit the HMO companies and costs billions more than originally sold to us, September 11th and the non-response of NORAD-My Pet Goat-19 hijackers with 9 still alive-and so many more distortions, tours of duty, nation building, regime change, National Guard Service or the lack thereof, uniting not dividing, nothing wrong with telling a US Senator to f*ck-off, and the "war on terror" which is nothing more than a front for the neocons and their PNAC plans. In fact, there is precious little this President hasn't lied about. It has become such second nature that they expect us to continue to swallow these fabrications and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Kenny-Boy Lay is a very good friend of the President, and has been for almost 20 years. Lay has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars directly to Bush. That money bought him access to the White House and he was selected to serve on Cheney's Energy Task Force. This task force decided this country's energy polices, which seem to be nothing more than welfare for the very energy companies that advised on the policy development. Then the Enron debacle collapses on this administrations head, and now we are supposed to believe that Bush and Lay are distant acquaintances. Sorry Scott, tell King George the people are not buying it anymore.Anthony Wade takebacktheus@gmail.com is an independent writer from New York. Website:
