Ken Lay?
Enron?
Never heard of them

Do you remember Enron and its CEO Ken Lay?  Well, if you do, your memory is much better than George W. Bush's memory.

Enron: A scam

On January 10, 2002, GWBush told another of his whoppers.  This date was after Enron had gone bankrupt and the nation was being treated to revelation after revelation of the financial shenanigans that caused the bankruptcy and that destroyed the pension savings of hundreds of Enron employees.

One of the central figures in this largest of all swindles was Enron CEO Ken Lay.  Enron was a scam.  The whole business relied on accounting tricks, secret partnerships, shady and convoluted trading, and outright lies.  In October 2000, Enron reported a third-quarter loss of $638 million; in November it admitted inflating its profits by $600 million over five years.  Enron had paid no income taxes for four of the preceding five years.

As Enron was going into the tank, the company forbade employees from selling stock that they held in their retirement plans.  Meanwhile, company executives were dumping millions of shares and pocketing profits based on thievery that had inflated the stock prices.  At the same time Lay was urging employees to buy more stock, he dumped enough shares to earn $50 million.

Enron?  Ken Lay?  Never heard of them.

Bush's Lie

On January 10 a reporter asked GWBush about his relationship with Ken Lay.  Bush replied:

"First of all, Ken Lay is a supporter, and I got to know Ken Lay when he was a head of the -- what they call the Governor's Business Council in Texas.  He was a supporter of Ann Richards (former Texas governor) in my run against her in 1994, and she named him head of the Governor's Business Council and I decided to leave him in place, for the sake of continuity.  And that's when I first got to know Ken and worked with Ken, and he supported my candidacy . . . "

Got that?  This is what George W. Bush said about his relationship with Ken Lay: ". . . 1994 . . . that's when I first got to know Ken and worked with Ken . . . "

The truth

In fact GWBush knew and associated with Ken Lay long before 1994 and Bush was much closer to Lay than just re-appointing him to a business council.

In the summer of 1991, Lay told the Dallas Morning News that in 1989, when he was spearheading a project to locate the Bush Presidential Library in Houston (Bush I), "That's when I probably spent more quality time with George W. Bush."  1989 -- not 1994.

Lay headed the local host committee for the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston where, according to what he told the Houston Chronicle he "worked closely with George W. Bush." 1992 -- not 1994.

In a March 2001 interview with PBS, Lay told a much different story from the lie told by GWBush.  Lay stated that he had been "a strong financial and political supporter of, first, President Bush, Sr., when he was running for president in 1980. . . I'm very close to the family. . . I was very close to George W. and had a lot of respect for him . . . "  1980 -- not 1994.

In a video of an October 2000 meeting of Enron employees, Lay stated "I strongly supported Bush when he ran for governor of Texas both times."  In fact, Bush sent Lay a letter in 1997 in which he referred to Lay as one of his "old friends."

What about Bush's claim that Lay had supported Ann Richards, former Texas governor?  Lay and his wife contributed $12,500 to Richards.  They gave $47,500 to Bush and Enron's political action committee gave Bush $146,500 (the PAC gave Richards  $19,500).

From 1994 on, Lay and his wife gave:  $122,500 for the two Bush gubernatorial campaigns; $100,000 for his inauguration; $250,000 for the Bush I presidential library.  Enron and Enron executives gave $736,680 to Bush for his political campaigns, his election recount, and his inauguration.

Perhaps this explains why Ken Lay has not been charged by the feds in the Enron disaster, while other Enron executives are going to jail.

Conclusion

George W. Bush lied about his relationship with Enron CEO Ken Lay.

George W. Bush is a liar.