Administration Plays Defense: DOJ Wants Enron Results Before Elections

The Bush administration suddenly finds itself fighting wars on two fronts - foreign and domestic. The first is in response to terrorism. The second is over corporate fraud and corruption at home.

This weekend the administration confronted both, with mixed results. Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing on Meet the Press, made a forceful case for regime change in Iraq, even if that meant US military intervention. The VP's appearance laid the ground for President Bush's September 12 address before the United Nations.

Cheney was less successful in fielding questions concerning allegations of accounting fraud and personal profiteering during his tenure as CEO of Halliburton, 1995-2000. The SEC is currently investigating the company's accounting practices and angry shareholders are alleging fraud and have sued Cheney and the company.

When asked Sunday to respond to the allegations, Cheney deflected the question, suggesting that the curious should refer to Halliburton's web site where, he claimed, they would find the answers. He said he could not answer the questions directly because it might be viewed as trying to influence the SEC's investigation.

But, as had been reported earlier when Cheney first referred reporters to the Halliburton Web site, the material there fails to answer those questions. Instead the site gratuitously states that Halliburton is innocent of any wrongdoing but has established new "accounting guidelines."

The site goes on to praise Cheney, as an "outstanding" leader. The company goes on to blame "political reporters" (guess that means us) who "want to see if there are any similarities between the company's accounting practices and those of the corporations under intense scrutiny because of their accounting." The web site continues: "However, we will work to answer every question honestly, no matter how ridiculous."

While Cheney continues to cite the SEC investigation for his public silence, he has not talked to the SEC about Halliburton either. Cheney spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise confirmed this weekend that SEC investigators have not even contacted the vice president yet.

Don't be surprised if he is never contacted. During the SEC's investigation of George W. Bush's Harken Energy stock sale in 1990 during his father's administration, the SEC never interviewed George W. Bush himself. Nor did the watchdog group approach Harken board members. In that case the SEC closed the investigation without taking action.