Enron Scandal Hits Bush Administration

Thomas E. White is George Bush's Secretary of the Army. Mr White is thought of quite highly by officials and staff in the administration. Unfortunately for him, until he took up his current post last May, he was a senior executive with the Enron Corporation, for whom he worked for 11 years.

During October last year Mr White sold around $3m worth of Enron stock. He made contact with former collegues 13 times in that month. He has also confirmed that from June 2001 to February 2002, he made 49 more telephone calls to former collegues than he first disclosed.

The former US Army brigadier general and Vietnam veteran claims that his contacts with Enron people were purely personal and that he had no inside information that the former energy giant was close to collapse. He apparently read about the demise of the company in the newspapers like everyone else. The timing of his share sales in October were fortunate.

White could well be clean. But, as he may yet learn to his cost, the appearance or mere possibility of impropriety is sometimes enough in politics to do untold damage to a reputation and a career.