Politics as usual - Oil, gas futures replace sex, lies

To the editor:

A lot of noise is being made about Enron's failure. President Bush said he has had no conversation with Enron officials, but his staff says that they have had.

Before Enron filed bankruptcy, Bush had approximately 150,000 shares of Enron in a blind account that was sold. Let's look and see if the broker sold all other investors' Enron stock. If he didn't, then some conversation took place somewhere to Bush's benefit. Investigation of the facts seems to be in jeopardy since the field office of the Justice Department based in Houston has recused itself from investigating this. This is notable because the office in Houston would know all the players in town, but if the Justice Department has to bring in investigators, this will delay the case. We all know what happens then.

Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself because he and Bush have also taken nearly $945,000 in campaign money from Enron. Into the mix we have the Arthur Anderson accounting firm that has shredded, lost and destroyed evidence. Where have we heard this before?

During the election we were led to believe that we finally had someone in Washington whom the buck would stop with. But it would seem that taking the Fifth Amendment has rubbed off from the previous bunch. Oil, gas and electricity futures now take the place of sex, lies and "I can't remember." The only losers are the investors and employees, since none of the politicians are going to give back their take.

DOUGLAS FLANNERY

Whitewater, Mo.