In order to understand how politics (and money) played a role in what happened with Enron, one of the things that needs to be examined is deregulation, and who the key figures were in working to promote deregulation. Some names that come up as being central to this question are Wendy Graham and Phil Graham, as well as the the Bush administration vis. the roll it played with its appointee to the position of head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (and the extent to which this choice might have been influence by Enron, and the money that Enron contributed to the Bush campaign).