Enron trial an unusual tourist draw

The Enron trial took a long weekend because of scheduling conflicts with the next few witnesses, but we can't go a day without some hot Lay/Skilling action — er, no, that came out completely wrong. But onward:

On Wednesday, Newsweek looked in on the trial, noting that it's still generating an odd sort of corporate-scandal tourism. It seems the courtroom seats are being filled daily not only by members of the press, but also by people taking vacations to Houston to watch the wheels of justice roll over what's become a paragon of corporate greed.

"They say everything is bigger in Texas, and I guess their scandals are, too," said a bright-eyed Bryan Gautreaux of New Iberia, La., in a soft Cajun accent. He worked through the weekend so he could take vacation days during the week to see Enron's disgraced CFO Andrew Fastow being grilled on the witness stand last week.

Among the people who have been frequenting the trial is David Tonsall (a.k.a. NRun), a former Enron engineer who became a rapper after his $200,000 in retirement savings vanished with the company's collapse. His CD of Enron-related songs, Corporate America, has sold 2,500 copies online, he says. An example of Tonsall's rhymes:

Skilling, gonna find you rain, sleet or snow, There's nowhere on earth that you can go. It's more Pipeline Boys all across the land, Ready to getcha for that Enron scam.

Consider yourself a sac-ri-fice,
For the Pipeline workers that gave their lives,
Maintaining the lines that made you rich,
When justice comes around you gonna get hit.

Land, scam ... rich, hit ... well, the idea of Skilling as Cain makes up for the rhymes. Tonsall has been passing out copies of his album in front of the courthouse, and he's not afraid to tell reporters what he thinks: "I want to see those guys go to prison for the rest of their lives," he said.