[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Elspode

A presidential pardon for Ken Lay would be political Bush suicide, I think. A lot of Republicans got swindled by the Enron orgy, too, and I'm pretty sure they want their pounds of flesh. I don't think GWB has any admiration for people who are too frigging greedy to swindle people without even a modicum of subtlety.

Which is why it would not occur during reelection. If he was on the energy task force, which even the GAO failed to find out thanks to a ferocious White House defense, then he has a lot of leverage. I don't know what he heard, but energy is tied to oil and oil is tied to Iraq so there might be something potentially embarrassing there.

It could be that he intends to trade on his friendship with the President, in which case an early trial would be in case GWB does not win. If he wants to use leverage and has enough information to embarass the president but not to trigger impeachment, that is only good up to election day. With the Republicans in charge and mostly in line, the impeachment bar would be high.

A good portion of this country have turned their brains off when it comes to supporting Bush, so if he gave a nice speech about Lay's family values, the need for compassion, maybe a few hints about a liberal conspiracy, he could muddy the waters enough to slide by. It would certainly be safer than having Lay detail a meeting at which Cheney comes into the room and poses a 'what if we controlled Iraqi oil' question.

Just a thought.