Just for grins I typed Bill Clinton into a search engine on the Internet and asked it to find sites that include the word Enron.

What a fascinating batch of stuff I found.

Seems buying influence is a longstanding tradition at Enron.

The Center for Public Integrity is a watchdog group the keeps track of the activities of public officials.

Their site offered up the following:

"Kenneth Lay, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Corp., accompanied Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown on a trade mission to India in January 1995.

"While in India, Enron signed a contract for a 2,000-megawatt power plant in Dahbol worth an estimated $400 million. Enron also won a contract to build a $920-million power plant on the west coast of India and a $1.1-billion contract for offshore gas and oil production.

"Rodney L. Gray, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron International, accompanied Brown on a trade mission to Russia in March and April of 1994.

"In Russia, Enron signed a deal to develop a market for Russian gas in Europe.

"Enron is a national gas conglomerate based in Houston, Texas.

"During the 1991-92 election cycle, Enron gave $28,525 to the Democratic party while Brown served as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Enron gave $42,000 to the Democratic party in the 1993-94 cycle."

That stuff ran on their Web site originally in 1995. The Enron guys make some soft money contributions to the Demos and get seats on Clinton administration trade missions to Russia and India.

And they get billions of dollars worth of business for their trouble.

In the Greensburg, Pa., Tribune-Review there appears a column called Dateline D.C.

Way back in December, Dateline D.C. ran a column under the headline "Clinton-Gore sales team eased Enron's path to success."

The column, among some 2,000 words, notes that Clinton's national security adviser, Tony Lake, "persuaded the impoverished, war-torn country of Mozambique to sign a $770-million electric power contract. Mozambique signed because Lake's salesmanship was persuasive. If the Mozambicans didn't sign, he indicated that their congressionally approved $44-million U.S. aid payment would never be made."

The Center for Responsive Politics notes that in the 2000 election cycle, Enron contributed more than $2.4 million, split 72 percent to 28 percent between Republicans and Democrats.

And get this. Enron ranked 36th on the list of biggest contributors. That means 35 corporations showered even more money on political parties and candidates.

Here's a rundown on Enron's campaign contributions.

• From 1989 to 2002, Enron and its employees gave $5.95 million in individual, Political Action Committee and soft money contributions to federal candidates and parties, 74 percent to Republicans and 26 percent to Democrats. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics)

• Soft money accounted for 60 percent of total Enron contributions - and 70 percent from 1995 on. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics)

• From 1991 to June 2001, Enron gave $3.94 million in soft money, 77 percent to Republican party committees and 23 percent to Democratic ones. (Source: Common Cause)

• Enron also gave $160,000 in 2000 to Section 527 tax-exempt political groups that collect unlimited soft money contributions to try to influence elections, including $110,000 to committees established or controlled by House Republican leaders. (Sources: Internal Revenue Service and Public Citizen 527 database)

• Enron and its employees contributed $312,500 to George W. Bush's 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial campaigns. Another $113,800 was donated to the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. (Enron also gave $10,500 to the Bush-Cheney Recount Fund and $300,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2001 Inaugural Fund.)

• Since 1989, 259 current members of Congress have received Enron campaign money. This includes 188 representatives (117 Republicans, 71 Democrats) and 71 senators (41 Republicans, 29 Democrats). Enron is the single largest contributor from the energy/natural resources industry sector over that time period.

(Source: Center for Responsive Politics).

• Top current senators receiving Enron contributions since 1989: Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas.), $99,500; Phil Gramm (R-Texas.), $97,350; Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), $23,200; and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), $21,933. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics).

• Top current representatives receiving Enron contributions since 1989: Ken Bentsen (D-Texas), $42,750; Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), $38,000; Joe Barton (R-Texas), $28,909; Tom DeLay (R-Texas), $28,900; and Martin Frost (D-Texas), $24,250. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics).

So what did the Enron get for its investment in politicians? "Nothing," of course, is what the politicians would have us believe.

Please, what businessman on the planet would invest that much cash if he didn't think there would be a return?

Here's a rundown, gathered from news accounts and posted on the Citizen Watch Web site, of Enron's special political access and influence.

• Enron officials had at least six meetings in 2001 with Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials who were drafting energy policy. The eventual administration recommendations, focusing on increasing energy supplies, were favorable to Enron.

• In winter 2001, Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay supplied President Bush's chief personnel adviser with two names, Pat Wood III and Nora Brownell, to fill two vacancies on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Lay also offered then FERC chairman Curtis Hebert Jr., who disagreed with Enron on certain electricity deregulationÊissues, political support to retain his position if he changed his views. He did not and was forced out by the administration. Bush then appointed Wood as FERC chairman.

• Enron supporter U.S. Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas) successfully steered a bill based on the above-referenced White House energy program through the House in August 2001.

• Representatives Larry Combest (R-Texas), Charles Stenholm (D-Texas) and Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) - all top recipients of Enron contributions - played major roles in final passage of the Enron-supported Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000. The legislation, previously approved by the House and President Bill Clinton, exempted energy derivative trading (Enron's main business) from government regulation.

• High officials of both the Clinton and Bush administrations strongly supported Enron in its financial dispute with the Indian government over a power plant venture. As it headed into bankruptcy last fall, Enron hoped that this support would bring it the financial oxygen of a $2.3 billion settlement.

Are you getting the picture here?

Don't kid yourself. Neither party is exempt. It's all about money and power and staying in office. It's all about cramming the campaign coffers full and pursuing policies to stroke the right constituencies to get the most votes.

Do you really think these guys cared at all about what was best for the American people when they were taking all this Enron cash?

Whose interests do you suppose were served first and foremost?

And don't forget, Enron - almost unbelievably - ranks a mere 36th on the slather-your-favorite-sleazy-politician-with-fat-cash list. Enron isn't even the tip of the slush money iceberg, they're just a little chip.

Campaign finance reform? What a joke. The guys charged with making meaningful change are the guys who benefit most from the system staying the same. Oh yeah, they'll reform it alright, if they see a way to gain advantage over the opposing political party.

Do I sound cynical? Oh, I'm way past cynical.

Our government, while affording us individual freedoms hitherto unknown to the civilized world, is fundamentally screwed up.

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