Bush staff subpoenaed in Enron probe

A Senate panel voted on party lines Wednesday to issue Congress' first subpoenas to the Bush White House, seeking information on staff contacts with Enron Corp. officials.

The vote was 9-8 to subpoena staff members in President Bush's executive office and in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The vote followed a two-hour debate that at times turned bitterly partisan.

The vote grew out of the Governmental Affairs Committee's investigation of Enron, which filed the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history last year. The Houston-based company has been among Bush's biggest campaign contributors.

Some Republican senators accused Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., chairman of the committee, of being politically motivated in requesting the subpoenas and unfairly giving the impression that wrongdoing in the Enron affair had occurred in the White House.

Republicans noted that the White House had indicated it would deliver material to the panel on Wednesday and asked Lieberman to hold off the subpoenas. "Are we doing this to attract the attention of the public?" Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., asked. "It makes me very suspicious about the motivation of asking for a subpoena."