How does McCain fit in [to the current high gas prices]? The road connecting him to $4 gas begins with -- Enron. Soon after Enron's birth as a power supplier in the 1980's, CEO Ken Lay decided he could make more money betting on electricity futures, especially if government regulators didn't stop him cornering the market and gaming the system. Under the first President Bush, an obscure agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, obliged Ken Lay. The CFTC chairwoman, Wendy Gramm, left Enron alone. When Bill Clinton beat Bush, it took only one week before Enron asked Gramm to lock in her hands-off position as CFTC policy. Gramm started the process. The CFTC approved it after she left -- on Clinton's inauguration day. Five weeks later, she took a part-time post on Enron's board of directors, and wound up earning $900,000 over the next decade. Clinton never undid Gramm's changes. Fast forward to the year 2000 and Bush v. Gore. In the chaos of constitutional crisis, Enron got a law passed containing what is now known as the Enron Loophole. Where Gramm deregulated individual trades, the Enron Loophole deregulated entire markets -- online markets. Enron had just started its own online market, and had set its sites on the state of California. Over the next six months, California suffered over 38 rolling blackouts, as Enron used artificial shortages, bogus deals, and total knowledge of the market as sole owner of its own online market, to treble California's energy bills. In the dark, regulators had less power than California did, leaving Enron laughing about it. (EMPLOYEE 1:) All he money you guys stole from all those poor grandmothers in California? (EMPLOYEE 2:) Yeah, Grandma Millie, man. (EMPLOYEE 1:) Yeah, now she wants her [expletive] money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her [expletive] for [expletive] $250 a megawatt hour. (laughter) (OLBERMANN:) The Enron Loophole applied to all energy commodities: oil, propane, natural gas. So today, oil futures are driven by speculators, free from any regulatory oversight. Now you can't just blame OPEC anymore. British Petroleum paid $303M to settle charges it cornered the propane market in 2004, inflating heating costs for seven million American homes. Two years ago, a Republican Senate report recognized what speculators have done, and blamed the Enron Loophole. Two weeks ago, the Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony on the Enron Loophole's effect on a barrel of oil. [See link for testimony excerpts.] John McCain seemed to understand this problem even earlier. In 2002 and 2003, he voted with the minority to close the Enron Loophole. ... But for most of this campaign, McCain has offered explanations other than the influence of speculators, and remedies other than regulation. ... [See link for for testimony excerpts.] John McCain doesn't talk about the Enron Loophole anymore. ... And when the bipartisan Farm Bill shut the Enron Loophole last month? John McCain opposed the Farm Bill, citing its spending levels. What changed? Since 2006, John McCain's top economic advisor has been former Texas senator Phil Gramm, husband of the former CFTC head, who then joined Enron. McCain chaired Gramm's 1996 presidential race, with Ken Lay as regional chairman. It was Gramm who passed the Enron Loophole, partially written by Enron itself, with no hearings, no debate. It was Gramm who stopped Democrats from closing the Enron loophole, and it was Gramm who became vice chairman of the Swiss financial firm UBS in 2002, less than a year after UBS bought the shattered remains of -- Enron's energy trading arm.