On Ken and Martha

Martha Stewart donates by the bucketload to the Democratic party. She supports strong women candidates and pro-choice activists. Where has that gotten her? In jail.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Martha's. I hate her corporate housewife gig. But the sale that convicted her this week on four counts of fraud awarded her a profit of only $45,000.

Now let's look at Ken Lay for just a minute. Enron's Chief Executive robbed millions of middle-class Americans of their retirement funds. He stole from them every penny he could by fraudulently inflating the company's stock prices and then selling it all off to walk away with $1.19 billion. Has he been charged yet? Yes! [on July 8th 2004, nearly 3 years after Lay passed the torch to successor Jeffrey Skilling, he has finally been charged. Read more here. ]

Ken Lay is a huge supporter of the GOP and George W. Bush. The $1000 cap on campaign contributions made it difficult for Ken Lay to show his love for George in the 2000 election. But there isn't a campaign finance law that ever stood between a dedicated contributor and his favorite candidate. Lay raised over $100,000 in $1000 contributions while working on Bush's election campaign.

Lay's contribution to the Republican National Committee totaled more than $275,000 that year. Enron paid $250,000 for George Bush's coronation at the Republican National Convention in Philly. Ken and his wife Linda contributed $10,000 to the Florida recount fund and the Enron corporate jets shuttled Bush and members of his election team back and forth between the Crawford Ranch and brother Jeb's state.

All in all, Enron campaign contributions to GWB in 2000 totaled $700,000. Wonder why they haven't been brought to justice?