The Bonfire of Criminalities

Oh, how easily they forget:

Maybe readers can help us help the folks at Powerline? From last night: "I may be missing someone, but the only high-profile administration offical I can think of who has faced criminal charges or had to resign in the face of scandal is Scooter Libby, who worked for the Vice President and who is not accused of corruption."

Let's help them remember:

Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty

* Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - resigned after being indicted for Obstruction of Justice, Perjury, and Making False Statements in connection with the investigation stemming from the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

* Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA - resigned after only two months on the job. Pled guilty to conflict of interest and making false statements.

* Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, DHS - Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. Pled no contest to 32 criminal counts.

* Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy- resigned, pled guilty to shoplifting from Target stores.

* David Safavian - former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget - convicted of lying to ethics officials and Senate investigators about his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

And that's just a partial list. So far, the list contains 27 names of people who were indicted/convincted/pleaded guilty, resigned due to investigation or whose nomination have failed due to scandal.

One good news for the Powerline boys: your convenient lapse in memory may not have fooled anyone, but you can take comfort in that the Bush administration doesn't have the worst record when it comes to scandals. At least not yet.

The Carpetbagger Report helpfully points out that the Reagan administration holds that distinction for now, with 32 convictions.

No president before or since oversaw a White House with so many criminal convictions. In fact, by way of comparison, there have been large organized crime families that have had far fewer convictions that the Reagan administration.

What’s worse, these convictions don’t even begin to include the dozens of other Reagan administration officials who narrowly avoided prosecution, but nevertheless left their positions in disgrace.

Over 30 additional Reagan appointees resigned or were fired following charges of legal or ethical misconduct, including Secretary of Interior James Watt, Secretary of Interior Raymond Donovan, CIA Director William Casey and EPA Administrator Anne Burford. Many dozens more were investigated.

And what our friend, Bill Clinton, who was rumored to lead a scandal-plagued White House? The only Clinton official indicted or convicted, after all of those multi-year, Republican-led investigations, was Asst. Attorney-General Webster Hubbell, who was convicted of embezzlement — a crime he committed before joining the Clinton Administration.

Something to keep in mind.

Tags: bush, clinton, convictions, indictments, reagan, scandals

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