Big Trouble At Big E

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another flipper:

Enron's former chief accounting officer, Richard Causey, has struck a plea bargain with federal prosecutors and will avoid going to trial with the fallen energy company's two top executives, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Causey, 45, agreed to testify against his former bosses, Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, in exchange for a much lesser prison sentence than he would receive if convicted on all counts.

Causey is charged with fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering for allegedly knowing about or participating in a series of schemes to fool investors into believing Enron was financially healthy. The company imploded in late 2001 amid disclosures of complicated financing schemes that gave the appearance of success.

According to the article, that's now 16 former Enron executives who have pleaded guilty in the case of the energy giant's collapse. Despite the CRS (Can't Remember Shit) and Sgt. Schulz (I know NOTHINK! I see NOTHINK!) defenses, Kenny Boy Lay and Jeffrey Skilling's collective geese seem cooked.

The news cycle is not going to get any better for Republicans heading into the new year. In January, we're going to have the Enron trial (although defense lawyers may push for a postponement to March), the Jack Abramoff trial (or plea bargain), the DeLay trial, the House in total recess because of the DeLay trial (they want to hold off until a hopeful acquittal so he can get his leadership post back), and hearings in the Senate on domestic spying. That State of the Union speech had better be a whopper.