First White House Aide indicted in 130 years!!!

[lovuian]

Now Scoobie makes it to the History Books!!!

On Fox News, former presidential advisor Dick Morris says today’s events don’t bode well for Dick Cheney:

JOHN GIBSON: How bad is this damage? And what does the president need to control it, Dick?
DICK MORRIS: Well, it depends on whether we are just talking about Libby. If the prosecutor is happy with an indictment of him, a conviction, and that scalp on the wall is sufficient for him, then it just goes away. It’s one bad chapter and it passes.

But it is very possible that the prosecutor looks up the food chain to Vice President Cheney. These investigations have a way of rising. And according to the terms of the indictment, Cheney told Libby about Valerie Plame and then Libby lied to the grand jury about how he found about it, saying that he got it from a reporter. Well, if that’s the case, the vice president knew that Libby was lying. <...>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/10/29/think-progress-dick-morr_n_9740.html

So if Dick gets to testify under oath with Scoobie Doo's case
I can imagine the first question to Dick is gonna be

Dick why would you and Scoobie talk about Valerie Plame???

[unrepuke]

1. So who is the guy 130 years ago, and what happened to him?

:shrug:

[lovuian]

3. I don't know but this is like looking at a repeat page in history!!!

The Disputed Election of 1876

Washington corruption had been exposed. The Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes who had a pure reputation as a Governor and General. The Democrats chose NY Governor Samuel J. Tilden who helped break up the Tweed Ring in New York City. There was much fraud in this election, on both sides. One month before the inauguration was to occur, Congress created an election commission to decide who had really won The commission had one more Republican than Democrat, and it was determined that the Republican Hayes had won. Less biased observers have determined that Tilden should have been the winner. Democrats were very upset, there were threats of filibusters and marches on Washington.
http://members.aol.com/RAmann2996/American_History.html

Kinda freaky isn't it!!!

[desi]

7. Keith Olbermann mentioned it a few days ago...

Included in these appointees was Grant's personal secretary, Orville E. Babcock. Even though the prosecutor had mounds of evidence against him, Babcock was acquitted and he resigned. Grant, furious with Bristow's findings about Babcock, forced him to resign from the cabinet.

[applegrove]

2. People in Watergate didn't get indicted? How bout Coorsgate?

[napi21]

4. The others all resigned before they were indicted.

Scooter is the first person in 130 years to be indicted while still working in the WH.

[applegrove]

5. Ahh - okay. I see. n/t

[lovuian]

6. Has anybody heard of Kraite Mobilier

in 1870???

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/october96/sabato_10-14.html

David Gergen chats with Larry Sabato, author of Dirty Little Secrets, about the fifty year cycle of corruption in American politics.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAVID GERGEN: In your book, you and Glen Simpson paint a portrait of corruption in American politics that stretches back for well over a century. You say there’s been a persistent pattern of corruption, stretching all the way back to Grant, if not earlier, and that you see a rising tide of corruption today across the American landscape. Let’s talk first about the pattern, the persistent pattern over our--over our history.

LARRY SABATO, Author, “Dirty Little Secrets”: Well, David, that’s right. There really is a cycle of corruption and reform throughout all of American history. We found an odd 50-year pattern. We’ve had three great scandals in American life: Kraite Mobilier in the early 1870's.

DAVID GERGEN: During the Grant administration.

LARRY SABATO: During the Grant administration, then exactly 50 years later, Teapot Dome during the Harding administration in the early 20's, and then Watergate in the early 70's in the Nixon administration. And after each of these great mega scandals, there was an attempt, a national attempt at reform of some sort which succeeded at least for a few years. But after a generation had passed, the press goes on to other subjects, the public loses interest, and the political system returns to stasis, which unfortunately is a corrupt stasis

[SharonAnn]

8. Credit Mobilier was the name of the scandal if I remember my history

http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_021900_crditmobilie.htm

CRÉDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA
The Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872-1873 damaged the careers of several Gilded Age politicians. Major stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a company, the Crédit Mobilier of America, and gave it contracts to build the railroad. They sold or gave shares in this construction to influential congressmen. It was a lucrative deal for the congressmen, because they helped themselves by approving federal subsidies for the cost of railroad construction without paying much attention to expenses, enabling railroad builders to make huge profits. When the New York Sun broke the story on the eve of the 1872 election, Speaker of the House James G. Blaine, a Maine Republican implicated in the scandal, set up a congressional committee to investigate.

The House censured two of its members who were involved in the scandal: Oakes Ames of Massachusetts and James Brooks of New York. But the affair also tarnished the careers of outgoing vice president Schuyler Colfax, incoming vice president Henry Wilson, and Representative James A. Garfield, all of whom were implicated (although Garfield denied the charges and was subsequently elected president).

The scandal also showed how corruption tainted Gilded Age politics, and the lengths railroads and other economic interests would go to assure and increase profits.

See also Corruption.
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_020900_corruption.htm

[unrepuke]

9. So W can brag "Ah broke thet there fitty year c'rupitation scandal thang."

the BFEE decided not to wait for the kids to step up to the plate in 15 years - HW and the Gorgon won't be around to see it happen. I hope they get to see their creation get dumped.