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far, the collapse of Enron seems to be losing steam as a political
scandal — while gaining momentum as a corporate scandal of
Milken/Keating dimensions. While that's mostly good news for the
White House, it now appears that the Enron matter is making things
worse for the administration on one front: the long-standing conflict
between Vice President Dick Cheney and the General Accounting Office
over Cheney's energy task force.
The two sides
have been at loggerheads since last spring, when the GAO, acting
at the request of Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, asked Cheney to
provide the names of everyone who consulted with the National Energy
Policy Development Group. Cheney, who had taken great care to comply
with the law allowing such meetings to remain confidential, refused.
Negotiations between the two sides went nowhere, and in late August
and early September, the GAO sent strong signals it would sue the
vice president to get the information. "On September 10, there
was virtually no question we were headed to court," GAO chief
David Walker told the Washington Post.
Then came September
11. After the terrorist attacks, the GAO held back, not wanting,
in the words of one agency source, to "tie down" the White
House at the height of the war on terrorism. Now, however, it appears
the GAO is ready to press ahead. A few days ago, Walker released
a statement promising a decision "within a month," and
sources say it might actually come as soon as next week, when Congress
reconvenes.
Although no
one at the GAO has said that the agency has decided to sue, Walker's
earlier statements on the issue — plus a report in Legal
Times a few days ago that the GAO has "quietly asked at
least three private attorneys" about representing the agency
in the lawsuit — leave little doubt that the GAO plans to press
ahead.
Why? According
to the agency source, three factors — Enron's collapse, continuing
Senate deliberations on an energy bill, and the diminishing urgency
of the war on terrorism — have all played a role in pushing
the agency toward litigation. "I think the Enron thing makes
it a different ballgame," says the source, adding that the
GAO is "getting more and more congressional requests to look
at different aspects of all the issues that affect Enron."
Since the GAO is the investigative arm of Congress, those requests
are in effect memos from the agency's boss — requests the agency
will not likely refuse. As for the other factors, the Senate energy
debate will keep interest in Cheney's policy high among Democrats
there, and successes in the war on terrorism have eased the GAO's
fears about tying down the White House at a critical time.
So far there
are no indications that Cheney will give in. The vice president
has consistently said that releasing the names of the private businesspeople
and other outsiders who consulted with the task force would make
it difficult for the administration to seek outside advice in the
future. "People will not engage us in candor" if they
knew their advice would appear in the press, one Cheney aide told
National Review last year. "We would be chilling the
process in the future."
For its part,
the GAO says it's not really asking for much. "People think
we want minutes and the notes people took" and other deliberative
information, says the GAO source. "That's not what we want.
We want to know who met with whom, about what, when, where, and
what did it cost. No one's going to be surprised by what they turn
over."
If they turn
it over.
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