Another Issue Off the Table

Democrats and Lefties must be very unhappy this morning. The former CEO of the notorious Enron Corporation, Jeffery Skilling, was arrested, and an indictment is expected to be issued presently. While the picture of Skilling in handcuffs is gratifying to one who has been telling the lefties for over two years that this would happen, there is no joy in Mudville today. The left is not happy. In their little world, when justice prevails, and a Republican administration looks good, the news is all bad.

The issue of, well, it goes by many names. But the idea that the Bush administration is a corporatist shill, that lawlessness is the name of the corporate game, that there is no justice for wealthy malfeasors under the republicans... in a normal or fair world it would just go away. There is nothing new about businessmen going to jail. At and near the top in American business, the place where I live, fear of the law is pervasive. Jail, and other sequelae of government interference, oops! regulation of business are common occurrences any time publicly traded stock is a factor. The leftist whining about two Americas, two sets of laws, it is all so much hooey.

As I have said many times, if this guy, or any one of dozens of others who have been in the news for the last few years for similar behavior, did what "they" said he did, i.e. steal shareholder money, lie to increase the price of Enron stock, or otherwise violate our very strict rules of corporate behavior, he will go to jail. In fact, as I write this, he is in jail in the basement of the Federal Courthouse in Houston. In the fullness of time the government will have their chance to present the evidence to a jury of people with good jobs or pensions. And, if the government doesn't piss the jury off, and if he is indeed guilty, he will go to prison. In any event he will lose most of his fortune, and will surely spend a long, a truly lousy period of time being hated by those he formerly thought were his friends.

Of course, the left will not agree with a word I have said. They will argue that this is just a drop in the bucket, and Skilling will get off, and all the rest of their lies and denial, since they do not believe that the system works, and they refuse to allow their argument to be sullied by the facts. But the truth is that, today, the system worked, and this long anticipated arrest has taken place. One more piece of the puzzle fits into place. And, in a fair world, this issue for the left would be off the table. But it's not, not entirely. They will continue to carp and whine about the unfairness of it all. But to those in the great middle, even in the rhetorical world where we live, this action by the feds has deflated the force of the issue against Bush in this election cycle. And that's a good thing.