Republican Culture of Corruption
It's been quite a recent news cycle for the War party:
- Rampant cronyism in top government position posts, leading to the Katrina aftermath debacle.
- A criminal indictment for the House majority leader.
- The replacement House majority leader, Roy Blunt, has a seedy ethical history also.
- Tom Delay associate Jack Abramoff indicted.
- Emerging facts on the dubious ethical behavior of the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist.
- Revealation of role of vice president chief of staff "what kind of grown man calls himself Scooter" Libby and sleazeball presidential advisor Karl Rove in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
- Pentagon analyst pleads guilty to providing classified information to an Israeli offical and a pro-Israeli lobbying group.
- A corrupt Kentucky governor, Ernie Fletcher, who in a shameful display of hubris, pardoned everyone in his political machine except himself of criminal charges.
- Ohio governor Bob Taft pleads no contest to charges in the coingate scandal
- Tom Delay associate Jack Abramoff indicted.
When the Bush administration took over, they pledged to clean it up. Instead, they've cleaned up. Meanwhile, despite the Whitewater and Monica-gate investigations, ZERO is the number of Clinton era officials indicted for malfeasance in their duties.
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From http://prorev.com/legacy.htm
RECORDS SET
- The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates*
- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation
- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify
- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly
- First president sued for sexual harassment.
- First president accused of rape.
- First first lady to come under criminal investigation
- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
- First president to establish a legal defense fund.
- First president to be held in contempt of court
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad
* According to our best information, 40 government officials were indicted or convicted in the wake of Watergate. A reader computes that there was a total of 31 Reagan era convictions, including 14 because of Iran-Contra and 16 in the Department of Housing & Urban Development scandal. 47 individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine were convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes with 33 of these occurring during the Clinton administration itself. There were in addition 61 indictments or misdemeanor charges. 14 persons were imprisoned. A key difference between the Clinton story and earlier ones was the number of criminals with whom he was associated before entering the White House.