Editorial: An Enumeration of Seven Years of Republican Screw-ups

Posted by spatula on Jul. 09, 2007 16:54 UTC

Can you remember all the major examples of gross incompetence, questionable ethics, lies and outright scandal perpetuated under the watch of the White House and the formerly Republican-controlled congress?

I got to thinking today, as the Bush Administration elected to stonewall any further investigation by Congress of what role the White House played in firing US attorneys for political reasons, about the huge enumeration of gross incompetence, questionable ethics, lies and outright scandal brought to us by the White House and the Congress that for the majority of time was controlled by Republicans.

Here is an attempt to list the ones that come to mind.

* The completely contrived story of outgoing Clinton staff stealing W keys and otherwise vandalizing offices.
* Senate Republicans illegally accessed Democrats' computer files
* Bush gets memo, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike". Goes on vacation.
* Bush sits for seven minutes reading "The Pet Goat" while the nation is under attack.
* Nation's energy policy is shaped behind closed doors, apparently with the aid of nation's energy producers.
* Jack Abramoff / Indian Gaming scandal
* Valerie Plame's cover blown
* Unsubstantiated yellowcake claim used in State of the Union when it was already known to be false
* Millions of dollars budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan disappear
* Tom DeLay violates Texas law banning corporate contributions to PACs.
* Tom DeLay launders money via TRMPAC
* Republicans jam phone lines for "get out the vote" efforts by Democrats
* "Journalists" are paid by the Bush administration to write articles favorable to administration goals, without revealing that they had been paid to publish their opinions.
* Speaking of "Journalists," James Gannon/Guckert, a male prostitute (8 inches, cut) for a right-wing shill web log gains unprecedented access to White House press briefings, and also seems to visit the White House frequently for reasons unknown.
* Dick Cheney and Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia go duck hunting together, even though Scalia will be presiding over a case involving Cheney. Scalia arrogantly refuses to recuse himself.
* Iraq
* Abu Ghraib
* Congressional pages and Mark Foley
* Guantánamo bay
* Illegal warrantless wiretapping
* Possibly-drunk Cheney shoots friend in the face
* Hurricane Katrina
* US Attorney firings for political reasons
* Terry Schiavo diagnosed over videotape by Senator Bill Frist
* Walter Reed medical hospital conditions demonstrate Republican commitment to the troops
* Osama bin Laden got away, still not caught
* Censoring of government scientists, especially if they offer an opinion about global warming or evolution
* Recession of 2001 followed by 5 years of sluggish economy
* Voting irregularities and failure to correct them
* Resistance to forming the 911 commission and failure to implement 911 commission recommendations
* Ignoring North Korea as hard as possible until they detonated a nuclear bomb
* Unconstitutional "signing statements"
* PATRIOT Act
* Dubai ports deal
* Pat Tillman death by friendly fire misreporting and attempted coverup
* Enron
* California Energy Crisis and refusing by FERC to intervene; slap on the wrist for those responsible for deliberately manipulating the market and creating those conditions
* Abuse of "National Security Letters"
* Abuse of General Services Administration to promote Republican politics
* Swiftboat liars
* Sinclair media
* Use of Republican National Committee servers to exchange emails for official US business; subsequently "losing" said emails in violation of Hatch act

Instrumental in helping to create this list were the Bush Scandals List and the Scandal Sheet.