|
|
|
|||||
|
"Ken
Lay, the disgraced Enron leader, hobnobbed with and contributed not only
to politicians but to think tanks. He was a board member and funder of the
conservative American Enterprise Institute (where Second Lady Lynne Cheney
is a fellow). And he had the same relationship with Resources for the Future,
a corporate-backed group researching environmental and natural resources
issues. Last spring, after Lay agreed to finance a chair at RFF, its president,
Paul Portney, gushed, "In his role as chairman of Enron Corp., Ken
Lay has almost singlehandedly made the world rethink what it means to be
a modern energy company." Lay's gift to RFF, according to the group's
newsletter, was to underwrite research "to improve the way decisionmakers
consider important issues on the top of the nation's policy agenda."
Well, he has been an expert at winning the attention of government decision-makers--whether
through doling out loads of money or getting caught overseeing a pyramid
scheme that triggers a mega-bankruptcy." (The Nation, February 11,
2002)
|
