By his relentless and uphill fight to drive the unregulated six- and seven-figure contributions made by corporations, labor unions and rich individuals from our politics co-captained by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass. Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., has made a lot of enemies. Now, thanks in no small part to the documented greed and arrogant irresponsibility of the leaders of Enron, the Texas energy-trading company now in bankruptcy, Shays could be about to make political history.
Over the recent congressional recess, Shays held 10 town meetings where, as his custom, he asked his constituents what they wanted to discuss: Social Security, health care, the war on terrorism or the nation's struggling economy. The No. 1 topic, named by three out of four town-meeting attendees, was Enron. Shays found anger and passion among voters in Norwalk and Stamford anger at the cruelty and indifference shown by Enron's leaders especially to the company's own employees. "A strong majority believed that these (top Enron) people need to spend time in jail," he adds. Voters were furious because "Enron used its corporate treasury to buy access and influence and," according to this Republican, "it did get both."
Democratic pollster Geoff Garin is sure that Shays is right: "Enron today shapes the national political debate ... about the economy, about energy and obviously about how our political campaigns are financed." But what about the political impact of the war on terrorism? "From a purely political perspective, Enron," according to pollster Garin, "casts a larger shadow because voters see the war as being above politics." Enron is the dominant political narrative of 2002.
The message, delivered by politicians who seek and accept those million-dollar "soft money" gifts make that "investments" is unmistakable. Everything is for sale! And after millions of soft money investments, including $1,671,555 in the 2000 election season alone, Enron's returns were not that bad: convenient tax loopholes that enabled it, the seventh biggest corporation, to avoid any federal taxes in four of the last five years by creating nearly700 dubious subsidiaries in tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
What the House Republican leadership had better grasp before it taxis down the political runway for a doomed Kamikaze flight against reform is that the voters "get" Enron. This is a morality tale with real, human victims who have been robbed and abused by their rich, powerful and politically connected bosses, and with whom nearly every American can identify. The victims have faces and families. The villains have faces and private meetings with the vice president.
For 30 years, Fred Wertheimer has been battling for campaign finance reform. He is second to none in his understanding of the legislative back alleys and dead ends. Wertheimer is not yet icing the champagne to celebrate the enactment of reform. He knows the GOP opposition, led by House majority whip Rep. Tom De Lay, R-Tex., is formidable and fierce. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is no fan of reform, but he is a man of his word, who has promised a floor vote now that supporters have persuaded 218 House members to sign a discharge petition to bring the reform bill to the floor.
The speaker understands that, given the administration's too-numerous ties to Enron, President Bush will sign any campaign finance reform bill that the Congress sends him. He is also being counseled by those close to him that the sham reform bill pushed by DeLay and others (it would, for example, legalize 82 percent of the $500 million in soft money collected in 2000) will not survive scrutiny, and that passing the Shays-Meehan reform bill could be a way for the GOP House to put Enron behind the party.
Enron does not deserve sole credit if campaign finance reform does become a reality. Former president Bill Clinton all but forced the then-Republican Senate to act on the reform bill in 2001. Clinton's last-minute pardon, after the exchange of lots of soft money, of fugitive-traitor-sleazeball Marc Rich probably made Senate passage inevitable. Marc Rich in the Senate, and Ken Lay in the House.
The 218th and decisive signature on the discharge petition that forces the House to vote up or down on reform was provided by Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. that rare Washington politician who neither seeks nor needs press coverage. He had never before signed a discharge petition. He explained quietly, "The American people deserve a full debate about how our campaigns are financed." Thanks to Richie Neal and Enron, that's what we will finally get.
Mark Shields is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.
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