Ken Lay is dead. Or so the media are reporting.
But as soon as I heard about the sudden demise of the Enron fraudster and good friend of George W. Bush, my mind immediately started to conjure up conspiracy theories. After all, his sudden death was just too good to be true for many parties involved.
First, he could have faked his own death. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this multi-millionaire awaiting sentencing for destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions of investors and employees could be sitting on a beach in the Grand Caymans right now.
Second, it’s not unreasonable to think that the current administration had a hand in his sudden death; after all, this is a man who shaped Bush’s energy policy — the one that was created in secret and led to lawsuits over government transparency; he was a major donor to Bush’s campaigns and even lent the Enron jet to Dubya for campaigning; a man who spent plenty of time at the White House but whom Bush claimed not to know once Enron collapsed. Was Lay contemplating a tell-all book?
Makes me wonder if the Bush cabal is deliberately setting up an atmosphere where otherwise intelligent, rational people like myself are prone to conspiracy theories, making us seem like crackpots?
Wow, you are even more paranoid than me! I just thought that it was another example of a syndrome for this kind of person: soon after they suffer a big, humiliating defeat, their health fails. In particular I was thinking of the Shah of Iran and Nixon (though he ended up hanging on for quite a while).
Though now that you mention it… I wouldn’t put anything past Rove/Cheney.
I’m with you…
My first thought was someone shut him up. Even later when I heard it was a heart attack I thought, that’s right….Make it look like a heart attack.