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Scandal and Scandal, What Is Scandal?

April 30th, 2007

TPM picks up on an interesting statement from the right-wing Power Line blog:

The truth is that the Bush administration has been extraordinarily scandal-free. Not a single instance of corruption has been unearthed. Only one significant member of the executive branch, Scooter Libby, has been convicted of anything. Whether the jury’s verdict was right or wrong, that case was an individual tragedy unrelated to any underlying wrongdoing by Libby or anyone else.

It is fascinating to see the subtle definition being made here: “scandal,” apparently, is restricted to a “significant member of the executive branch” being “convicted of anything.” I bet that if the same person were to define “scandal” under the Clinton administration, there would be a much broader net.

Even so, the Power Line blogger is still wrong. As TPM points out, many administration officials have been involved in scandal, even under their narrow definition, including Bush FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford (pled guilty to conflict of interest and making false statements), Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Claude Allen (pled guilty to shoplifting), DHS Deputy Press Secretary Brian Doyle (pled no contest in pedophile case), and senior DHS official Frank Figueroa (pled no contest in case where he exposed and fondled himself in front of a 16-year-old girl in a shopping mall). Aside from Scooter Libby, these four certainly count as significant executive branch members (unless the Power Line guy would like to further narrow the definition). The TPM list is far more exhaustive, but includes administration officials that maybe aren’t as “significant.”

Of course, maybe I’m just going nuts here, but I myself would count “scandal” to include more than just secured convictions of senior executive branch personnel. Definitely, the prosecutor firings are a “scandal,” as I think just about everyone who isn’t a “loyal Bushie” would admit (certainly, the same people who call the prosecutor firings a “faux scandal” are ones who considered the Clinton “Travelgate” firings a “real scandal,” despite the fact that they were of far less significance than the attorney firings).

But scandals of this nature–malfeasance that may be covered up enough so as not to end in convictions, or even malfeasance which is not technically illegal but is corrupt as hell–go back to the beginning of the Bush administration, and have occurred regularly since then. We can start with Vice President Dick Cheney inviting the leaders of the energy industry in the White House to dictate U.S. energy policy, and then refusing to come clean about who was there and what they said. Also a scandal at the start was the Enron mess–Ken Lay may not have been a “significant member of the executive branch,” but he was Bush’s most notable patron from Texas, and a personal friend of the former governor. How about the administration’s failure to follow up on multiple significant warnings about al Qaeda before 9/11, and then the attempt to cover that up? What about Bush’s resistance to allowing the 9/11 commission to go forward, his refusal to testify under oath for it, and his resistance to carrying out their recommendations? There is the scandal of how badly the Bush administration screwed up in dealing with hurricane Katrina. How about the use of fake “security alerts” to help throw the 2004 election his way? Or the billions of dollars “lost” in Iraq? Or the no-bid contracts given to Cheney-bound Halliburton? Or the fake news stories planted in the press? The use of federal funds to create “informational” videos which were essentially Bush campaign commercials? Lying to Congress about Medicare? Approving of torture and not recognizing the Geneva conventions? Any number of revelations about Guantanamo Bay? The rewriting of scientific reports to fit the administration’s political agenda? The Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch lies? And of course, now we have the latest scandal with top State Department adviser Randall Tobias stepping down after it became known that he hired prostitutes to give him “massages.”

Was Abu Ghraib not a scandal? Were the warrantless wiretaps not a scandal? Was the whole of the Valerie Plame case, aside from Scooter Libby, not a scandal? Was Jack Abramoff not a scandal? Was lying to the American people about Iraq not a scandal?

The Bush administration has, in fact, been virtually nothing but wall-to-wall scandals since day one. But because of the lack of oversight from the Republican-controlled Congress, because of the veil of 9/11 and terrorism, and all too often because of their ability to destroy records and lie unabashedly, there have been relatively few convictions of senior executive branch members.

Now, if that’s not something to be proud of, what is?

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  1. Luis
    April 30th, 2007 at 12:29 | #1

    Here’s where I expect some “loyal Bushie” to come forth, choose the least of the multiple scandals I listed above, make an argument about how that one was not a scadal, and then act like the entire post was wrong therefore.

    Of course, I am and always have been a cynic.

  2. Tim Kane
    April 30th, 2007 at 15:34 | #2

    Just as big of a scandal is this business of modify the patriot act so as to allow the executive branch to bypass the senate.

    This provision ought to be found to be unconstitutional, even though colored under an emergency edict.

    Arlen Spector is responsible for this, and he should have to go through as much accountability as anyone.

    Not only did he undermine constitutionally mandated processes,he did it in the middle of the night and he did at the expense of his own institution, the senate.

    Why?

    I want to know more.

    This provision was Rove’s ‘enabling act’.

    It is highly diabolicle and dangerous to our democracy.

    I believ Sen. Dodd did the same thing when he unhinged liability of accounting agencies and lawyers in constitutional law back in 1994 (which paved the way for Enron and a dozen other scandals, undermining our economy.)

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