Sunday, March 04, 2007

Bush Administration (Growing) List of Shame

When the whole Walter Reed Hospital ghetto dorm scandal broke, and yet another round of senior officials were fired in disgrace (Maj. Gen. George Weightman, followed the next day by the Secretary of the Army, who reports to former A&M pres. Robert Gates, who replaced fired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld), it got me wondering. Exactly how many of these corrupt, incompetent boobs have paraded in front of us, their Bush/Cheney T-shirts all stained at the armpit?

A Google search yielded two lists (from Wonkette and TPMmuckraker, see Sources below), which I cribbed, but they needed updating. It didn’t take long: as Maverick says in Top Gun, “I’m so gay for you, Iceman.” I mean, “Now, this is what I call a ‘target-rich environment!’”

I weeded out the small-time crooks: everyone on the list is senior management level or higher. Aides and clerks are mentioned only if their bosses took 'em down with 'em.

Also, I’ve found that I needed to reserve the top spot for updates. They are so frequent!

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Update to Walter Reed's Trading Spaces; the Abu Ghraib Edition:
The army's surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, was forced to retire 10 days after he replaced the disgraced Maj. Gen. George Weightman (see above), as head of the veterans' hospital.
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Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Heather Wilson (R-NM), subject of a congressional probe following allegations that they inappropriately contacted the U.S. attorney in their state, David Iglesias, about an ongoing criminal investigations of Democratic politicians. Iglasias and seven other state attorneys were abruptly fired, some by phone, despite positive job reviews. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a formal complaint, alleging that the firings were politically motivated (specifically, Republicans were angry that state attorneys weren’t more aggressive in their attacks against Democrats during the '06 election).
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  1. Randy Cunningham (R-CA). Convicted of accepting $1.3 million in bribes. Federal prisoner serving eight years and four months.

  2. Bob Ney (R-OH), pled guilty to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and to a charge of falsifying financial disclosure forms. Federal prisoner serving thirty months.

  3. David Safavian, General Services Administration Chief of Staff. Found guilty of four felony counts of lying and obstruction of justice. Federal prisoner serving 18 months.

  4. Larry Franklin, Defence Dept. intelligence officer in Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans. Resigned and pled guilty to passing secrets to Israel. Federal prisoner serving 13 years.

  5. Darleen Druyun. Senior contracting official, U.S. Air Force. Admitted to fraud in a deal the US government made with Boeing. Served nine months in Federal prison.

  6. Lester Crawford, Chief of Food and Drug Administration. Convicted on charges of conflict of interest and false reporting (lying about stock owned in companies regulated by his agency). Sentenced to three years' supervised probation, fined $90,000.

  7. John Korsmo, Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board. Pled guilty to lying to the Senate and an inspector general. This influence-peddling scandal arose from his inviting FHFB-regulated bank presidents to a fundraiser for his friend's congressional campaign. Sentenced to 18 months probation.

  8. Michelle Larson Korsmo, Deputy chief of staff, Department of Labor. Helped her husband with his fundraising scam. Resigned two weeks before news broke that she and her husband were the targets of a criminal probe (see above).

  9. P. Trey Sunderland III, Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry, Nat'l Institute of Mental Health. Pled guilty to a criminal conflict of interest charge, for failing to report $300,000 received from Pfizer. Sentenced to two years probation, ordered to forfeit his drug company bribes “consulting" fees.

  10. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President's Chief-of-Staff. Convicted on four counts of perjury, lying to the FBI, and covering up the illegal exposure of a covert CIA operative. Pending sentencing.

  11. Mark Foley (R-FL). Resigned following a sex scandal involving under-age male Congressional pages. Perversely, this pedophilic rep chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

  12. Dennis Hastert (R-IL). Former Speaker of the House, replaced by Dem. Nancy Pelosi. Under investigation for taking over $100,000 in contributions from Jack Abramoff. Also for allegedly trying to cover up inappropriate conduct by Mark Foley (see above).

  13. Frank Figueroa. Senior Dept. of Homeland Security official, former head of anti-sex-crime "Operation Predator." Pled no contest to exposing himself to 16-year-old girl in Florida mall. Sentenced to one year's probation; barred from malls and food courts where children gather; limited contact with minors during his probation.

  14. Brian Doyle, Deputy Press Secretary for Dept. of Homeland Security. Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. Pled no contest to 32 criminal counts. Federal prisoner serving five years, to be followed by ten years of probation in sex-offender program.

  15. Bernard Kerik, Bush nominee for Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. Withdrew his nomination when a laundry list of corruption allegations and NY District Attorney investigations came to light. Later pled guilty to ethics violations (accepting bribes and gifts while a public official), fined $221,000.

  16. Michael Brown, head of Federal Emergency Management Agency. "Brownie," as Bush calls him, had no FEMA-related experience or qualifications. Forced to resign due to incompetent handling of Katrina recovery, and allegations that he had falsified portions of his résumé.

  17. Philip Cooney, Chief of Staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality. A former oil industry lawyer with no scientific expertise, Cooney resigned after it was revealed he had watered down (and expunged parts of) a White House report on global warming.

  18. Claude Allen, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy (Bush’s top domestic policy adviser). Resigned, pled guilty to theft (shoplifting $5,000 over 5 years from Target stores, while earning a White House salary of $13,300/month). Sentenced to 18 months probation.

  19. Bob Taft, Republican Governor of Ohio. Indicted on charges of accepting $5,800 in bribes. Pleaded "no contest," fined $4,000.

  20. Curt Weldon (R-PA). Voted out of office in Nov. '06. Target of FBI investigation on charges of trading political influence for lobbying contracts for his daughter. In September 2006, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on members of Congress with ethics issues, titled "Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch)". Weldon was one of the 20. "His ethics issues stem from using his position to financially benefit his children and a family friend."

  21. Tom DeLay, Senate Majority Leader(R-TX). Forced to resign under indictment on money laundering charges. Two of his aides were convicted in the resulting Jack Abramoff bribery scandal. Delay posted $10,000 bail; trial pending. While Senate Majority Leader, he received four ethics violation admonishments from the bipartisan House Ethics Committee (by unanimous vote).

  22. Katherine Harris (R-FL). Voted out of office in Nov. ’06. Currently under Justice Department and Defense Department investigations for her relationship with "hookergate" defense company CEO, who pled guilty to criminal bribery offenses in February ‘06. Mitchell Wade made $32,000 in illegal contributions to Harris' House campaign in 2004.

  23. Bill Frist (R-TN), former congressman and Senate Majority Leader. Currently under SEC and NY State Attorney's Office investigations. Named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as one of the thirteen "Most Corrupt Members of Congress." CREW also filed complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee, calling for investigations into stock holdings outside of his blind trust, an alleged cover-up, and an allegedly mishandled disclosure of a campaign loan.

  24. Dusty Foggo, Executive Director, CIA. Resigned under investigation by the FBI, IRS, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the CIA's inspector general, and the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. Charged on Februrary 13, 2007 with fraud and other felony offenses related to the bribery case of former congressman Randy Cunningham (see above). Pending trial.

Thank you. Congratulations.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress"

House of Representatives

Senate

"Five members to watch" (added September 2006)

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Sources: