I guess because the Clinton admin was actually corrupt and full of
scandals, they must find something to use against the Bush admin.

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:e1uh439p7ngk35kc5gd4olup0h2fu6m67a@4ax.com...

http://www.slate.com/id/2165980/

Friday, May 11, 2007

Bushies Behaving Badly

A guide to GOP scandals.

By Holly Allen, Christopher Beam, and Torie Bosch


Paul Wolfowitz in the World Bank With Nepotism

The World Bank president and "Iraq war architect" allegedly helped his
girlfriend get a generous salary package and promotion when she
transferred to the State Department. Wolfowitz said an ethics panel
approved the deal, but the panel denies it. An investigative committee
found that the deal was a conflict of interest. (He apparently helped
her career in the past, too.) Wolfowitz critics also allege that he
used his position at the bank to promote a conservative agenda on
family planning and global warming.


Department of Education Federal Employees in the Department of
Education With Corporate Ties

Leading colleges have long received kickbacks for guiding their
students to certain loan companies, but a new investigation into the
practice has implicated the Department of Education. One department
official was suspended for owning stock in a student-loan company
called Student Loan Xpress. Loan companies also temporarily lost
access to a federal student-information database because they were
using it to find borrowers, not just to determine the eligibility of
applicants. The House education committee is investigating-and
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is on the defensive. Six years
ago, the Department of Education wanted to tighten restrictions on
college/loan-company relations, but the Bush administration nixed it.


Bushies in the Election Assistance Commission With Fraud

The Bush administration and Karl Rove pushed for U.S. attorneys and
others to look into voter fraud more thoroughly, alleging that illegal
immigrants (and dead people) are casting ballots. A couple of the
recently fired U.S. attorneys said that they were pressured by
Republican lawmakers to bring voter-fraud cases they didn't think
warranted attention, and the president himself allegedly spoke to
Alberto Gonzales about U.S. attorneys not pushing hard enough to
find-voter fraud cases. Last year, the Election Assistance Commission,
a federal panel, allegedly altered findings to make it seem like
experts thought voter fraud was more pervasive than it really was.


Partisan Hacks in the Press With Bought Agendas

Commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of
Education to promote No Child Left Behind, while columnists Michael
McManus and Maggie Gallagher got $10,000 and $21,500 respectively from
the Department of Health and Human Services to push Bush's Community
Healthy Marriage Initiative. After lobbing softballs to President Bush
at a press conference, conservative "journalist" (and occasional gay
escort) Jeff Gannon was accused of being a plant. Meanwhile, White
House "video news releases" made it onto television news broadcasts.
The segments, produced by the Department of Health and Human Services,
used fake journalists to promote the Medicare expansion bill and were
shown on local TV news shows, without any disclosure that they were
basically government commercials.


Bernard Kerik in the Department of Homeland Security With the Nanny .
and the Publisher . and the Mob .

In 2004, Bush tapped former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard
Kerik to head the Department of Homeland Security. The nomination fell
through when it emerged that Kerik's nanny was an illegal immigrant.
He also had an extramarital affair with publishing dynamo Judith Regan
in an apartment donated as a rest stop for 9/11 workers, and he did
business with the allegedly mob-linked Interstate Industrial Corp.


Rove in the White House With the Delete Key

White House officials allegedly used Republican National Committee
e-mail accounts to conduct government business. As many as 5 million
messages relating to official business may be lost because users were
deleting them, in violation of White House rules requiring that
e-mails be saved. Karl Rove says he thought the e-mails were being
saved, but some allege that the deletions were a deliberate attempt to
keep things off the official record. The missing communiqués
interfered with the congressional investigation into White House
involvement with the U.S. attorney scandal. The Senate judiciary
committee has subpoenaed the Department of Justice e-mails to track
them down.


Lester Crawford in the Food and Drug Administration With Tainted
Stocks

Former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford recently pleaded guilty to
conflict of interest and false reporting for owning stock in companies
he oversaw as part of his FDA duties. He was fined $90,000 and
sentenced to three years of probation. While heading the FDA, he owned
stock in Pepsico Inc., Sysco Corp., and Embrex Inc., a drug company.
His brief tenure was marked by debates about emergency
contraception-he allegedly tried to keep Plan B from receiving
over-the-counter status, contradicting the advice of an FDA expert
panel.


Bushies in NASA With the Weird Science

NASA scientist James E. Hansen accused Bush appointees of censoring
global-warming info and limiting press access to top climate experts.
George C. Deutsch, a 24-year-old writer and editor for NASA who had
worked for Bush's 2004 campaign, resigned for lying on his résumé.
Deutsch also made NASA Web masters add the word theory to every
mention of the big bang.


The GOP Leadership in Congress With Dirty Money

In 2003, Rep. Nick Smith said another congressman offered to donate
$100,000 to his son's campaign fund if he voted in favor of a Medicare
bill. Smith later recanted, saying there was no bribe-he was just
pressured into the vote so his son would get an endorsement. In 2004,
the House ethics committee admonished Tom DeLay for violating House
rules by offering a quid pro quo and Rep. Candice Miller for appearing
to make "threats of retaliation" by saying that Smith's son would
never get elected if Smith didn't vote for the Medicare bill.


Bored Soldiers in Iraq With the Cameras

Soldiers at Abu Ghraib took pictures of prisoners being mistreated.
Several of those involved were court-martialed, and some were sent to
prison, but they claimed they were acting on orders to soften up the
prisoners for interrogation. The highest-ranking person to be held
accountable was Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who headed the Army
Reserve unit running the prison. She was demoted to the rank of
colonel but claims she was merely a "scapegoat." Some critics wondered
whether then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew about the scandal;
Rumsfeld offered his resignation to Bush twice, but the president
didn't accept it.


Eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency With the Wiretaps

After 9/11, the National Security Agency started eavesdropping without
warrants on phone calls between the United States and overseas
parties. Alberto Gonzales defended the wiretaps, but a federal judge
ruled that the practice violated both the Constitution and the 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. After objections from Democrats
and lawsuits filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional
Rights, Gonzales announced that, although the program "fully complies
with the law," President Bush would not reauthorize it. The
administration continues to push for expanded surveillance laws.


Bureaucrats at Walter Reed With Cockroaches

After the Washington Post ran a series detailing the moldy,
roach-infested conditions and incompetent bureaucracy of Walter Reed
Army Medical Center, Sen. Charles Schumer called the scandal the
"Katrina of 2007." Army Secretary Francis Harvey removed the
hospital's commander, only to be fired himself the next day. Ten days
later, the Army surgeon general was gone, too. Investigations are
ongoing.


Jack Abramoff on K Street With the Wallet

In January 2006, Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to
conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion. Between entertaining congressmen
with golf junkets to Scotland, trading votes for dinners at his D.C.
restaurant, and fleecing Indian tribes, there aren't many white-collar
crimes Abramoff hasn't committed. He was sentenced to five years and
10 months in federal prison for wire fraud, but might get out sooner.
(Abramoff's misdeeds spawned a massive corruption investigation that
is still ongoing.)


Steven Griles in the Department of the Interior With the "Special
Relationship"

The former deputy interior secretary pleaded guilty to lying about his
relationship with Jack Abramoff. Griles initially told the Senate
Indian affairs committee that "there was no special relationship for
Mr. Abramoff in my office." In reality, he had intervened in the
department on behalf of Abramoff. (For example, he helped block
progress on a new Indian casino that would have competed with one of
Abramoff's clients.) Griles will be sentenced in June.


Scooter Libby in the White House With the Faulty Memory

After retired diplomat Joe Wilson disputed President Bush's State of
the Union claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger, an
administration official (later revealed to be Richard Armitage) leaked
the classified CIA status of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. The leak
led to a federal grand jury investigation examining the roles of,
among others, Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then-chief of
staff to Vice President ***** Cheney. Libby was indicted and convicted,
but not for the leak. Rather, his crimes were perjury, obstruction of
justice, and lying to the FBI. His sentencing is set for June 5.


Alberto Gonzales in the Justice Department With the Pink Slips

In March 2007, eight fired U.S. attorneys claimed that they were let
go for political rather than performance-related reasons. A subsequent
congressional investigation led to the resignations of Kyle Sampson,
chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Monica
Goodling, the AG's senior counsel. Gonzales initially denied his
involvement in the firings, but documents released to reporters
indicated he had attended meetings on the subject. In his testimony to
the Senate, he admitted to misspeaking in his initial statements about
the firings and said the removal of the attorneys was "flawed," but
insisted he should keep his job.


John Doolittle in Congress With the Campaign Donations

The FBI raided the home of California Rep. John Doolittle in April
2007 as part of the Jack Abramoff probe. Doolittle reportedly accepted
$14,000 in campaign donations from Abramoff-and a lot more than that
from Abramoff's clients. Doolittle's wife, Julie, also runs a
consulting business with ties to Abramoff.


Mark Foley in Congress With the Instant Messages

Florida Rep. Mark Foley resigned amid revelations that he exchanged
sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages with former
congressional pages. Foley claimed he never actually had sex with any
of the minors, and it's still unclear whether he broke any laws. The
flap also raised questions about why Republicans, particularly House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, didn't act on earlier reports of Foley's
inappropriate behavior.


Halliburton in Iraq With the Defense Contracts

Halliburton Co., the multinational energy company helmed by *****
Cheney between 1995 and 2000, scored lucrative contracts to provide
logistical support for U.S. troops in Iraq and elsewhere, netting the
firm $20 billion over the past five years. Spokespersons for the
company have said that Cheney played no role in helping secure the
contracts. In 2004, the Justice Department began investigating whether
a subsidiary of Halliburton offered a $180 million bribe to secure a
contract to build a natural-gas plant in Nigeria back when Cheney was
CEO.


Tom DeLay in Congress With the Corporate Funds

Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader known as "the
Hammer," resigned in June 2006 after a Texas grand jury indicted him
for financing Republican candidates in state elections with corporate
money-a violation of Texas campaign-finance law. DeLay has not been
charged in connection with the Jack Abramoff case, but two of his
aides pleaded guilty to crimes uncovered by the Abramoff probe. DeLay
also took multiple foreign trips on lobbyists' dimes.


Randall Tobias in the Massage Parlor With Scented Oils

Tobias, head of the Bush administration's foreign-aid programs,
resigned from his post after his name appeared on an escort service's
client list. The service's proprietor, the so-called "D.C. Madam," is
under investigation for running a prostitution ring. Tobias has denied
receiving any illicit services-he just phoned "to have gals come over
to the condo to give me a massage."


Rick Renzi in Congress With the Land Deal

Federal prosecutors are investigating a land deal that may have
benefited a former business partner of Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi. When
his chief of staff phoned the Arizona prosecutor to discuss the
investigation, Renzi got swept up in the U.S. attorneys scandal, too.
Most recently, the FBI raided his wife's insurance business, prompting
Renzi to step down from two House committees.


Duke Cunningham in Congress With the Candlestick

California Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned his congressional
seat in late 2005 after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in
bribes from defense contractors. Among the gifts he received were
Persian rugs, a secondhand Rolls-Royce, access to a contractor's boat,
and silver candlesticks worth $5,600. He is currently serving an
eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence.


Dusty Foggo in the CIA With the Bribes

The same probe that sent Duke Cunningham to jail led to the indictment
of Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. The former CIA executive director allegedly
accepted bribes from Brent Wilkes, a high-school friend who also
happened to be a defense contractor and a major Republican donor.
Foggo, who was appointed in 2004 by then-CIA Director Porter Goss,
stands accused of granting Wilkes contracts in return for lavish
gifts, including a one-week stay at a Scottish castle. Revelations of
Foggo's sexual proclivities have done little to burnish his
reputation, either.

___________________________________________________

I'm sure y'all have your own favorites.

Harry