To most people, even here in Houston, the crumbling of Enron was as much a financial shock as 9-11 was an emotional one. The corporation’s two silver towers still smolder in our imagination. Now, like New York’s twin towers, we can’t look at them anymore. So now everyone is off to find the bad guys. Six months ago, the good guy in the minds of the civic boosters and the recipients of Enron’s corporate philanthropy was definitely Ken Lay, Enron’s CEO. The bad guys then were folks – like me – who pointed out that Mr. Lay’s call for taxpayer support for Houston’s new baseball stadium put him at odds with the entrepreneurial spirit he seemed to otherwise portray. “Stop the nay saying,” my colleagues would say. “We need a stadium.” To antagonize them, I wore anti-Ken Lay T-shirts calling Mr. Lay and his fellow dome hucksters the “Dome Boys” and warning, “Don’t let them play with your money.” But in spite of my T-shirt, Mr. Lay got his way and then laid on a few million to have it named Enron Field. (I say now we call it Taxpayer Field.) No love lost. I was already in trouble with those civic boosters for defending a certain Michael Milken every time his name came up over lunch and for pointing out that Rudolf Giuliani is a cruel and evil tool of the establishment – in spite of his choking up so tenderly for the firemen during the aftermath of 9-11. See, Mr. Milken is everything Mr. Lay is not: an entrepreneur who made a short run around government to take over weak companies. Looks like Lay tried to influence government to get more business while setting up weak companies. Let’s see… Mr. Giuliani put Mr. Milken in the pokey, Mr. Lay was made a Houston hero, and Mr. Giuliani became mayor of New York and 9-11 poster boy. But, alas, now Mr. Lay is being subpoenaed by those BIIIIIIIG believers in free enterprise: Congressmen. But like that other big bidness guy, Ben Laden, Mr. Lay is laying low (as of this writing) – probably in the marble caves of his Houston high-rise. The Houston fans of Mr. Lay’s former civic mindedness are now seeing him as the bad guy after all. Their colleagues, friends and family members have tragically lost millions in pensions, not to mention their jobs. Touch someone in their pocket book, and they can hate bad guys, too. Sure, he is to blame for the tax subsidies to “our” ballpark, but it seems that Mr. Lay’s biggest crime may have been outright lying to Enron Board of Directors and shareholders about stock value. Just as he hawked the dome when he knew the taxpayers would pay for it, he hawked Enron stock when he knew it was falling. I say he should run for president! Mr. Giuliani’s crime was in using laws written to stop “racketeering” to put away Mr. Milken who found a clever way to use bonds to take over weak corporations. Some bad guy. Mr. Milken didn’t lie to his investors. In fact, for them he made many millions of dollars. He created many companies, that, unlike Enron, are still viable businesses. Mr. Lay is leaving his employees without jobs, investors in the red, and a baseball stadium as a liability to Houston taxpayers. So if you’re an ex-Enron employee and would like to get the help of Mr. Milken with your investments, ask yourself who the good guys and bad guys are. If you need help, take me to lunch sometimes. There’s plenty of space around those lunch counters near the smoldering Enron towers.

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