Stardate 20020129.0653

(On Screen): They're all victims. It was a bear that did it. He opened the kitchen door and he's the one that broke the cookie jar and ate all the cookies. Honest, mom! We all tried to stop him!

Ken Lay's wife claims that the ex-CEO of Enron was out of the loop and didn't actually know what was happening. He was as surprise as anyone else when the house of cards collapsed. And besides which, he is nearly bankrupt (never mind all the stock he sold before the price collapse and the millions he reaped).

This stretches credulity to the breaking point. "Hey, Ken; we just set up another fifty corporations in the Cayman Islands." "Oh, OK; thanks for telling me." Hmm... I wonder why we're setting up so many of those; well, can't be important. If it were a problem, they'd tell me. Let's see, what's the next civic project I'm supposed to work on?

The pattern of defense seems to be this: "Ken Lay was stupid and ignorant, not evil." (So there's no grounds for criminal prosecution leading to a long jail sentence.) "And he's broke." (So there's no point in civil suits; can't get blood from a stone.)

And besides which, it's really the auditor's fault — so why don't you go sue Andersen and leave us to live in our three homes in Aspen in peace, OK?