The Most Opportunistic Guy in the Room!

In the wake of Kenneth Lay’s sudden “death” while awaiting sentencing after his conviction for accounting fraud, I finally made a point of watching the documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. As I had heard from numerous sources, the most striking and maddening parts of the film were the sound clips from tapes of Enron traders talking about how they were essentially “raping and pillaging” California during an energy crisis that was largely manufactured by Enron.

While it is only hinted at in the film, the aspect of this period that seems critically important today is that the only reason Arnold Schwarzenegger is Governor of the State of California is because Enron gamed the State’s energy market! This enabled Schwarzenegger and his supporters to use the phony crisis as a club against then Governor Gray Davis to pound him out of office during a hastily arranged recall election.

And Schwarzenegger was in on the ground floor of the “crisis,” as e-mails show Arnold met with Ken Lay and others before the onset of the rolling blackouts that created a groundswell of resentment toward Davis, and allowed Arnold to ride into Sacramento as a self-proclaimed “savior.”

But what happened after the Enron scam was revealed, and it was determined that they had duped California out of some 9 billion dollars? Arnold quickly presided over a settlement that might end up restoring less than 17 cents on the dollar.

Then, despite also owning a fleet of Hummers that could justify his own direct pipeline from Saudi Arabia, he proceeded to make one of the cornerstones of his supposed “environmentalist” credentials the same hydrogen fuel cell boondoggle pushed by the Bush Administration in an effort to stave off real energy reform while the oil industry cleans out the last remaining crumbs from the cookie jar that is the U.S. economy!

Forget about the fact the technology exists to use plug-in electric/gas hybrids (in fact the freakin’ cars existed in the 1990’s) to increase fuel efficiency by a factor of 10! All without having to build a massive network of hydrogen fuel stations for cars we won’t have the capability of mass producing for decades, and which are based on a technology with serious questions about its own efficiency and feasibility!

All so Schwarzenegger can get up and proclaim how wonderful it will be when his Hummer “can run on nothing but water!” He might as well dream of putting a flying pig behind the wheel, for all the good either will do toward bringing America to energy independence in time to prevent economic collapse.

With Arnold Schwarzenegger gearing up for a re-election campaign, we need to constantly remember how he got where he is. As you find yourself cursing Enron, and wishing that Kenneth Lay had stuck around long enough to pay for his crimes with prison time, just remember the motto:

A vote for Arnold is a validation of Enron!