Happy New Year - 2008

Hopefully, it will be a happy New Year for most of us. It probably won't be so good for a few Bush administration people however. There is a detailed list at TPM of these people but here is an abreviated list.

Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty

Eric G. Andell - deputy undersecretary in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools
Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA
Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
Steven Griles - Deputy Secretary at the Interior Department
John T. Korsmo – Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board
Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff
David Safavian - Office of Federal Procurement Policy
Robert Stein - comptroller and funding officer Coalition Provisional Authority
Roger Stillwell - desk officer, Interior Department

The above list does not include the many who "resigned due to investigations, pending investigations or allegations of impropriety" or whose "nomination failed due to scandel" or who are still underinvestigation. A total of another 32 individuals including Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo, Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, Richard Perle, Kyle Sampson, Paul Wolfowitz, Linda Chavez, and Bernard Kerik (some of the better known individuals).

The list is partly to remind conservatives that the Bush Administration has not been corruption free as some seem to think.

Bush's administration has been nearly corruption free by historical standards. 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

Remember G.W.'s promise to restore integrity to the White House?

"We will ask not only what is legal, but what is right; not what the lawyers allow, but what the public deserves.

We got what was legal because under Bush whatever G.W. said was by definition legal (in his mind at least). We definitely got what we deserved. Afterall, we did elect him for a second term of office.