Enron: The Guiltiest Guys in the Room

Since I live in California and got hit with huge energy bills thanks to Enron's greed and lies, I've been eagerly awaiting today's guilty verdicts. They probably don't offer much solace to the thousands of people who lost their entire retirement plans, but at least they can sleep at night knowing Justice has been served. The days of slapping crooks and liars on the wrists are clearly over.

Be sure to see "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" if you haven't already. It does a great job of weaving together the connections betwen Enron, Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Enron was instrumental in recalling Gray Davis a few years ago and supporting Schwarzenegger to the very end. Literally. If we had a media that was beholden to the public, rather than corporations, those connections wouldn't have been so shocking and the people who got screwed with high energy bills would have demanded more from their "leaders."

DarkSyde at Kos found these numbers at Breakdown by Candidate or PAC:

Lay is known to be a very close personal friend of current US president George W. Bush, and was one of the largest contributors to his presidential campaigns. His contribution history is $651,760 to Republicans, $61,960 to Democrats, and $62,150 to special interests. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Advisory Committee and was rumored to be the early top contender for Secretary of the Treasury until his untimely fall from grace and credibility.

Skilling was a long time idea man and Enron power broker who served a couple of stints at CEO. He is a well known political cash cow with a campaign contribution history of $162,750 to Republicans, $9,750 to Democrats, and $50,783 classified as special interests.