Where Are The Indictments?

NEW YORK - It has been said about the various corporate scandals that there is plenty of blame to go around--and that's exactly where it's going: around and around.

Over the weekend, a U.S. Senate committee released a report stating that Enron's (otc: ENRNQ - news - people ) highly compensated board members ignored repeated warnings that the company's books were dishonest. Today, a U.S. House committee will question WorldCom (nasdaq: WCOME - news - people ) executives. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is saying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee chairman should be fired because he is too close to his old clients to regulate them or their clients effectively. And tomorrow, President George W. Bush, himself being questioned about his own stock sales and his vice president's tenure at Halliburton (nyse: HAL - news - people ), will make a speech in New York about his reaction to corporate wrongdoing.

Exactly what the president will say has not been disclosed, but he is expected to draw a line between the many honest corporate officials and the few dishonest ones. One way to draw that line is with criminal indictments, yet, apart from Arthur Andersen--tried on a peripheral issue of obstruction of justice--there have been none.

It is now more than seven months since Enron revealed that its accounts were false. The massive stock trading by Enron executives is a matter of public record. Justice Department prosecutors have secured the cooperation of David Duncan, the former Andersen partner responsible for the Enron account.

But still there are no charges against Enron principals. If the president wants to make the case that his administration will not tolerate corporate wrongdoing, what better way than to indict his old friend and former Enron CEO, Kenneth Lay?