After the embarrassing personal foibles of Clinton's final years in office, George Bush promised to restore honor and integrity to the executive branch. But seven years on, his administration has weathered and is presently embroiled in dozens upon dozens of scandals; although none of them seem damaging enough to change the course of this disastrous administration.
In early 2005, Salon.com compiled a list of 34 Republican scandals that began during the Bush administration's first term in office. In the twilight years of Bush's presidency, the scandals continue to pile up; yet the political consequences for Republicans have been relatively light.
The fictitious case made by the White House to invade Iraq will go down in history as this scandalous administration's most monumental screw up. Bush and his top officials lied to the American people, Congress, the UN and the world when they made their case for war with Saddam Hussein. In comparison, the firing of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons and the conviction of Republicans on corruption and perjury charges pale. Stumbling on to the scene in Iraq opened the door for colossal new scandals like torture perpetrated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Just to name a few...
-World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is under pressure to resign after it was revealed he pulled strings to get his girlfriend a lucrative job at the State Department while remaining on the Bank's payroll.
-Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, was convicted on perjury and obstruction charges in connection with leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has lost the confidence of scores of lawmakers for his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, who seem to have been sacked in order to make room for political sympathizers.
The Democrats have not gone after the White House Republicans with even a trace of the rabidity that characterized the Republican legislators' attacks on Clinton. For most of his presidency, Bush has enjoyed a partisan Congress that wouldn't dream of investigating thier cronies in the executive branch. Also, as Salon pointed out, without the "drumbeat of scandal" sustained by the right-wing news media - as we saw during the Clinton-Lewinski debacle - the Bush administration scandals, inexplicably, do not seem to be a defining feature of his reign. While Clinton's adultery was contemptible, his missteps seem utterly trivial compared to this president's slip-ups, which have conservatively cost tens of thousands of civilian lives.
