Pinning Blame for Enron - Feb. 19, 2002

Two stories in the newspapers reveal how difficult it will be for Democrats to pin the Enron mess on President Bush. The New York Times reported yesterday that Enron drew up plans to cultivate close political ties with the Al Gore campaign two years ago just in case he won.

And Demopcratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe has got another "Enron" in his closet. The Washington Times reports that in addition to his $18 million profit from Global Crossing, a telecommunications firm that filed for bankruptcy after McAuliffe that made out like a bandit, the DNC chairman cashed out of Telergy, incorporated shortly before it went belly-up last year. It is estimated that McAuliffe pocketed about $2 million from that deal.

So as Democrats try anything and everything to bring down President Bush's popularity, it appears increasingly unlikely that they're going to make Enron stick, especially when their top guy was making huge profits. Hey, I thought Democrats were for the little guy!

I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.