Well, Ken Lay beat the rap today when he died of an apparent heart attack. Too bad , as I am sure the thousands of victims of his white collar crimes will now miss the satisfaction of watching him serve many well-deserved years in prison.

I'm not sure having a fatal heart attack at age 64 (most probably related to the stress of his conviction and events leading up to it) constitutes "beating the rap." But there undoubtedly are some who would rather have watched him serve his time in prison, or at least have him die in prison.

What makes you think that he was not about to cut a deal and had to be offed by the bushies?

The reason I don't think he was about to cut a deal and had to be offed by the bushies is because if that were the case, George W. would have done the more straightforward thing and would have enlisted Cheney to shoot him in the face during a hunting trip. George W. is not one to do things subtlely and his grandmother Barbara wouldn't have let George the first (the subtle one) get involved.