Former Enron chief Ken Lay is in the news again with his extraordinary claim that he was the victim of a "wave of terror" by prosecutors and that his only fault was trusting the company's CFO Andrew Fastow too much.

Chutzpah, says floridatoday.com. One from the playbook of one-time HealthSouth chief Richard Scrushy, according to the New York Times. (Well, it seemed to work for him!) A piece of carefully crafted screenplay, says the Houston Chronicle.

But the most vicious responses have come from the blogosphere. Loren Steffy's Full Disclosure blog describes it as a "great crock". Musings of the Great Eric wonders whether it's time to reconsider the death penalty, Daniel Gross says Lay is just delusional, The End of The World calls him a jackass and Dana Garrett's Delaware Watch says Lay is in ga-ga land.

Others make the political connection. Wylie Post for instance points to the links between "Kenny Boy" and President Bush. Political Cortex accuses Lay of using the same tactics that Bush had employed to turn around his falling polls. DCDL points to similar tactics employed by Bush and the Republicans and Political and Social Commentary draws comparisons with a president who claimed to be the victim of "faulty intelligence".

Lay's trial is due to begin next month. If his performance this week was a preview, it should be one hell of a show!