…CBS MarketWatch’s David Callaway, who writes, “The Enron debacle won’t be President Bush’s Whitewater. It will be much worse.“

Don’t expect to see either Bush or Vice President Cheney directly linked to the financial shenanigans that brought Enron down. They won’t be. This is not about finding a smoking gun, as much as some Democrats might wish it were.

What it is about, and what the public will get to hear and read about in wrenching detail over the coming months, is how business gets done down in Texas. How a small group of business leaders exert enormous clout over Bush and his team in getting the rules changed to their benefit.

Their “benefit”? Let’s see… Bankrupt, under investigation by the Department of Justice and the SEC, daily vilified by the both the press and the public, and excoriated by former employees and shareholders alike — yeah, I’d like to be in Ken Lay’s shoes these days…

Callaway adds, “Business leaders have always sought favors from politicians. That’s nothing new. But in the case of Enron and Lay, a night in the Lincoln Bedroom was never going to be enough.”

Enron cultivated Bush from the time he first decided to run for governor of Texas, with executives donating a total of $623,000 to his two gubernatorial campaigns and presidential campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Ever notice how when, say, Green groups contribute heavily to a campaign, or throw the weight of their marketing and PR resources behind a particular candidate, it’s called “supporting” or “lobbying” (depending on the circumstances)? Yet, when a large corporation — and one involved with oil no less! — does the same thing, it has somehow nefariously “cultivated” the candidate (rather than merely lobbied him or her) In this case, Enron has “cultivated” President Bush, and (to hear Callaway tell it) it has done so “from the time he first decided to run for governor of Texas”? Fascinating! Y’know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think Mr. Callaway was cribbing this story from the tale of Merlin and that peasant boy he cultivated, the future King Arthur…

Writes Callaway:

Enron won’t bring down Bush. He remains enormously popular for his handling of the war and the rebuilding of the country’s psyche after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But it will be a major thorn in his side through the rest of this presidential term, and it might even play a role in the next election, depending on what comes out.

Enron, the company, will soon be gone. But Enron, the symbol of how big business and big politics sometimes conspire to fix the game, is just starting to dawn on the national consciousness.

It’s an ugly story. One that explains a lot about what’s going on in our nation’s capital right now. And it’s only just beginning.

For a story that’s “only just beginning,” Mr. Callaway, you’ve certainly reached an awful lot of conclusions about how it will end…

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