- It's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls
a decade back that should raise an eyebrow. According to a series of memoranda
our office obtained today, it's his dalliance with the boys in a hotel
room just two years ago that's the real scandal.
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- The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17,
2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political
intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold
and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.
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- Now, 34 pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come
through this reporter's fax machine that tell all about the tryst between
Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger
knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage
a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging
California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.
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- Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The
biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private
lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision
17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation,
heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return
the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.
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- It takes real cojones to bring such a suit. Who's the
plaintiff taking on the bad guys? Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor
and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger.
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- Now follow the action. One month after Cruz brings suit,
Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political
buck-buddies, including Arnold. Their plan, to undercut Davis (according
to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis ñ that is,
make the Bustamante legal threat go away.
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- How can that be done? Follow the trail with me.
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- While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the Davis
Administration is simultaneously demanding that George Bush's energy regulators
order the $9 billion refund. Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by ... Ken Lay.
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- But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem. The
evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid: fraudulent reporting
of sales transactions, megawatt "laundering," fake power delivery
scheduling and straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel rooms).
So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies
with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they
have to pay only 2 cents on each dollar they filched.
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- Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if
the governor of California won't play along. Solution: Recall the Governor.
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- New Problem: the guy most likely to replace Davis is
not Mr. Musclehead, but Cruz Bustamante, even a bigger threat to the power
companies than Davis. Solution: smear Cruz because ñ heaven forbid!
ñ he took donations from Injuns (instead of Ken Lay).
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- The pay-off? Once Arnold is governor, he blesses the
sweetheart settlements with the power companies. When that happens, Bustamante's
court cases are probably lost. There aren't many judges who will let a
case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed
the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency.
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- So think about this. The state of California is in the
hole by $8 billion for the coming year. That's chump change next to the
$8 trillion in deficits and surplus losses planned and incurred by George
Bush. Nevertheless, the $8 billion deficit is the hanging rope California's
rightwing is using to lynch Governor Davis.
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- Yet only Davis and Bustamante are taking direct action
to get back the $9 billion that was vacuumed out of the state by Enron,
Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Company and the other Texas bandits who squeezed
the state by the bulbs.
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- But if Arnold is selected, it's hasta la vista to the
$9 billion. When the electricity emperors whistle, Arnold comes ñ
to the Peninsula Hotel or the Governor's mansion. The he-man turns pussycat
and curls up in their lap.
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- I asked Mr. Muscle's PR people to comment on the new
Enron memos ñ and his strange silence on Bustamante's suit or Davis'
petition. But Arnold was too busy campaigning to answer.
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- The Enron memos were discovered by the Foundation for
Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Los Angeles, www.ConsumerWatchdog.org.
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- © 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
Reproduction by Syndication Service only.
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- http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16902
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