Enron: Lay Won’t Appear Before Congress

Re “Enron’s Ex-Chief Won’t Testify,” Feb. 4: Before we let the Enron bus run away again, let’s make sure what they are doing now is aboveboard. Forget about Kenneth Lay for now; it is pretty obvious that his case will now be dealt with by professional plaintiffs on the government payroll.

Let’s have the new CEO [interim chief executive Stephen Cooper] testify. Let’s make sure the new guys are not going to slip under regulatory scrutiny as they attempt to issue new debt and equity to get Enron out of hock.

Doug Morgan

Irvine

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Billionaires like Lay really do live on another planet. Suddenly, on Sunday morning he realized it wouldn’t be enough to have sent his family ahead to vouch for his honesty, integrity and “loving father” status. This appearance before the panel would not be a piece of cake; the loss of life savings and jobs by thousands of ordinary people is not a figment of someone’s imagination to be wiped away by his polite denial of any wrongdoing.

After all, his wife said even they will have to sell two of their houses. That makes everything equal. Really!

Pat Ostrye

Monrovia

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Good for Ken Lay! So he decided to pass on the self-serving “investigative” congressional circus (10 committees at last count are rooting through the Enron debacle). It seems the Enron employees who appear before committees are simply vehicles for the posturing and preening of our legislators, who gleefully trample the crime scene. Why not cancel the committees and let the law enforcement professionals do their work?

Lynne Spreen

Palm Desert

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It is the ultimate in chutzpah for the Bush administration to complain that releasing information on its meeting with Enron officials will erode the right of the executive branch to privately consult with whomever it pleases, while at the same time it introduces legislation and instructs its Justice Department to monitor citizens’ e-mails, eavesdrop on their cellular phone conversations and gut their 4th Amendment rights “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

Lanny Swerdlow

Palm Springs