Enron investigation in question

Enron was back in the news last week when new information regarding the firm's recent financial collapse was made public. As the investigation of the company's potentially illegal business dealings have gained momentum, congressional leaders and political pundits have increasingly turned their focus to the Bush administration and its ties to the now-defunct former Fortune 500 energy trader. But investigators should be careful not to allow what seems, at least preliminarily, to be a strictly financial matter from degenerating into a full fledged political circus.\nAs of late last week, the early stages of political scandal were already brewing in Washington. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed Jan. 10 that Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay had contacted him late last year along with other administration officials to alert them to the firm's financial difficulty. House Governmental Reform Committee ranking member Henry Waxman told The New York Times Jan. 11, "It is now clear the White House had knowledge that Enron was likely to collapse but did nothing to try to protect innocent employees and shareholders who ultimately lost their life savings."\nWhat Waxman failed to mention is that absolutely no evidence exists to suggest that any such telephone conversations involved discussions of information that hadn't already been made public. Even if members of the Bush administration did know that the company was headed toward financial disaster, it is unclear what, if anything, they could have done to prevent it. \nIf they had accepted Enron's alleged request that the government intervene on the firm's behalf, Democrats would have been the first to cry foul. But since preliminary evidence suggests that all of Enron's millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the Bush administration failed to buy them political favors, Democrats like Waxman have been forced to change strategy.\nQuestions about the administration's ability to properly investigate the matter and comparisons to the Clinton administration's Whitewater scandal have also surfaced in recent days. Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn raised the issue last Thursday on CNN when he asked "Can (people) trust the administration to get the right answers? And would they trust an administration-sponsored investigation? I don't think so." \nWhile the concept of an independent investigatory agency sounds good in theory, Kenneth Starr's handling of the now-infamous Lewinski affair, provides ample evidence that independence from political interests and influence is unrealistic in practice. \nRather than allowing the nation to be dragged through another fruitless political witch hunt by an "independent" investigator with partisan intentions and unlimited power, the president and the American people should rely on the host of investigative bodies that have already begun to examine Enron's failure. \nThe Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and five congressional committees had already begun investigating the matter by Jan. 11. The president has also ordered an investigation into federal law governing employee 401(K) accounts in order to develop ways to protect workers in the future. \nEnron's collapse raises serious issues that deserve a serious and thorough investigation. With war in Afghanistan and recession at home, the country can't afford to be mired in another political scandal. Baseless claims of the Bush administration's implicit involvement in the matter at such an early stage in the investigation only suggest that some Beltway politicians care more about politics than people. The American public deserves better.