The Top 5 Scandals that threaten to take Bush down

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/05/pardon_me.html#more

Pardon Me. No, Pardon You.
by emptywheel

There are currently at least five scandals that threaten to bring down the Bush Administration or do lasting damage to the Republican party.

Abramoff, whose bunch of visits somehow morphed into two, along with the giant "go fuck yourself" of releasing Secret Service logs that don't even include the White House visits we know about.

The Plame outing, which would only implicate the larger party if Fitzgerald were pursuing evidence on the Niger forgeries, which he's not. But it is about to take down the Republicans' most astute strategist and threatens to take down the Neocons' cabal leader.

The NH phone jamming case, which implicates the current and the two previous RNC Chairs (Ed Gillespie for planning it, Haley Barbour for funding it, and Ken Mehlman for coordinating the damage control), and which must threaten to do more damage to the party, since the RNC has dumped 6 million into defending the burglars phone jammers.

Randy Cunningham's bribery ring, which is, as the prosecutor announced the other day, "much bigger and wider than just Randy 'Duke' Cunningham."

Tom Noe, which (by comparison) seems like small potatoes, but shows the RNC made a systemic effort to use Republican state administrations to launder money.

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[Ezlivin]

1. The one that SHOULD have - 9/11

After that intelligence failure he should have been impeached.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. Yes. But even before that, how about the 2000 election? If we

had nipped the monster in the butt then -- who knows what would have happened since.

Can't imagine Gore ignoring that there would be a highjacking. This has pissed me off more than any one single event. When Condi said she heard there would be a highjacking but didn't know about planes flying into buildings. Granted. BUT, what NO ONE asked her or made her accountable for was that she did nothing to prevent a "regular" highjacking. If those guys never got on the planes there would be no 9-11 - simple as that.

[Ezlivin]

9. You are right - 2000 was THE moment we should have violently reacted

The moment the election results were in doubt we should have stopped and done a thorough investigation.

Too bad the criminals are now running things and busily shredding documents.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Yes, you are so right. Especially with Jeb in there deleting voters,

sending absentee ballots willy nilly. But back then, they saw Bush as an affable guy and had no reasons not to believe he was on the up and up. So no public outcry. You know, I think the singular event that screwed us was Bush acting like he won. Gore could have done the exact same thing - taken on the role of the winner instead of the challenger.

[mod mom]

2. Noe says he wants to change his plea, so just maybe he'll talk:

I posted this earlier:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2616359&mesg_id=2616359

[RagingInMiami]

3. only five?

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I can think of 2428 reasons to impeach, indict and

imprison. :evilgrin:

[babylonsister]

5. Amen! nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. "Top" five n/t

[wiggs]

6. I still have hope in Sibel. Still hold out hope that

Powell or Tenet will set the record straight.

Of the five, seems like only one goes to the heart of the administration: Plame. The others, as you say, will do lasting damage to GOP, but I don't see them touching the administration in time for 06 or maybe even 08.

Another set of scandals: If dems get in in 06, then you'll see Medicare lies, DSM, torture, 9/11, Dubai ports, signing statements, and other misdeeds come back for more discussion and examination...as they should.

[bumblebee1]

11. Any one of those five scandals should have been enough.