We’ve commented several times on the unfolding Enron situation, so we’ll just link you to the newest info and commentary (and maybe make a few smarmy remarks in the process…).

Today, the Los Angeles Times offers it’s analysis in “White House’s Failure to Sound Alarm Faulted: That no warnings were issued as Enron collapsed raises the specter of special treatment, critics charge.” A taste:

Many experts on government-business relations say the company’s relationship with the Bush administration made aiding it a potential political embarrassment. But others say the administration decided not to help the company because its failure did not threaten widespread damage to financial or energy markets and the economy as a whole.

Meanwhile, The New York Times examines the Golden Parachute crowd:

As Enron stock climbed and Wall Street was still promoting it, a group of 29 Enron executives and directors began to sell their shares. These insiders received $1.1 billion by selling 17.3 million shares from 1999 through mid-2001, according to court filings based on public records. They continued selling just before Enron’s stock started to tumble early last year and the company began its slide into bankruptcy protection.

The Washington Post, in turn, reports that “Enron Also Courted Democrats” — no surprise to anyone who’s read David Brooks’ column in The Weekly Standard or Byron Yorks’ latest in The National Review. The Post writes:

Democrats are savoring the chance to use embattled Enron Corp.’s Republican ties to embarrass the Bush administration at upcoming congressional hearings. But Republicans might turn the tables, to some extent at least, because Enron has courted and supported prominent Democrats as well.

According to internal Enron documents and the recollections of former employees, Chairman Kenneth L. Lay had the ear of top Democrats in the 1980s and ’90s. He and his colleagues used that access to promote the company’s interests with the Clinton administration and key congressional Democrats.

protein wisdom’s “Johnny Cochrane Award for Rushing to Judgment” — awarded on Thursday by Victor Milkwhite to David Callaway of CBS Marketwatch — is holding up just fine, thank you…