Oh No! They've busted Kenny!

Just in time for the Democratic National Convention and all that free network air time coming up to the likes of Al Sharpton, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson, comes word that former Enron chair and President Bush buddy Kenneth Lay, is going to be spending quite a bit of time in court.

When the US Justice Department announced that the big fish was being prepared to fry, there was little sense of accomplishment from the Executive branch at the White House. Long forgotten is that pledge during a state of the union speech to address the need for some corporate accountability. No high fives from the President, nary a word from the Veep, only the lonely PR flack in Scott McLellan at the White house to say that the President was not really very close to Lay, rather the Enron chairman was just a political supporter who happened to favour the Republican cause. The fact that George Bush referred to him as Kenny Boy apparently just a term of official thanks and recognition, no personal relationship is to be inferred or accepted. This despite some pretty obvious instances of a rather close relationship.

Enron became the scourge of Wall Street, a picture of excess as the nineties came to a conclusion, Enron is the five letter word that defines the worst of American business. The high flying energy company which collapsed in 2001 has seemed to set back the cause of corporate accounting for centuries.

One wonders what kind of media frenzy will take place when this case makes its appearance in court. The Enron scandal makes the Martha Stewart case look like a ticket for parking in the yellow zone at the local Sears store. And in the center of this controversy is an old friend of George W. Bush’s. How’s that for teeing up the ball and letting the Democrats play Home Run Derby.

We can already see the Democrat speechwriters and spin masters preparing their barbs from the podium, When you count up the connections to the Enron mess and add of course VP Cheney’s friends at Haliburton, well it won’t take much to get the crowd worked up in Boston! Perhaps Ann Richards the former Governor of Texas can be counted on to deliver her famous Poor George speech over again. It was a hit during the Clinton run when she used it against Papa Bush, surely there is a bit of play left in that golden oldie!

Then again perhaps turn the job over to the new generation, with a Democratic VP candidate in John Edwards who seems more than capable of delivering a speech, one sits and awaits the verbal tongue lashing that is to come.

President Bush and Veep Dick Cheney had best get their best Teflon, fire retardant suits on, Boston promises some pretty hot days and some of the fuel for that fire is going to come from Kenny ”Boy” Lay!