The Daily Background

The White House has a habit of getting caught hanging around the wrong crowd. Specifically, criminals and other unsavory characters (though an argument can certainly made that the White House itself is full of these types of people itself– and they are merely associating with their own kind). And when those folks get caught or exposed, the White House is forced to back away from them, and say that they really didn’t know them that well after-all. Here are two historical examples and one current one.

From US Fed News and a DNC statement (no link, via LexisNexis), on Enron:

“Enron’s ties to Bush Run Deep”
Until early 2004, Enron was President Bush’s largest career patron and Ken Lay was a personal friend of President Bush. Now, Ken Lay is facing 20 to 30 years in jail for his role in one of America’s biggest corporate fraud scandals… Bush Used Enron Corporate Jet as Presidential Candidate… Kenneth Lay, Enron’s CEO, was a Bush Pioneer in 2000, raising at least $100,000 for the Bush Presidential campaign. Enron gave $1,114,490 to the RNC, $300,000 to the Bush inaugural, and $113,800 directly to Bush’s presidential campaign from Enron employees… Lay Donated More Than $120,000 to Bush’s Gubernatorial Campaigns…

That one goes on and on but you get the idea. Next, from the Chattanooga Times Free Press (again, no link- via LexisNexis) on Abramoff:

“A lobbyist’s White House ties”
White House officials, of course, have maintained ever since the Abramoff lobbying scandal erupted that Mr. Abramoff exaggerated the extent of his influence at the White House. Then again, they also pretended to barely know Mr. Abramoff. That falsehood has now been exposed, and federal prosecutors should be pursuing other leads revealed by the House Government Reform committee.

And of course hundreds of ties between the White House and “Team Abramoff” have since been exposed. Finally, the contemporary article. From Scripps Howard News Service, about the White House’s connection to the now disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard (recent allegations have been made that Haggard had sex with a gay prostitute, and he had admitted buying Mephamphetamines, or “meth” from him).

“White House plays down Haggard ties”
He made frequent visits to the White House and was included in a select group of religious leaders briefed on the administration’s agenda during a weekly teleconference with White House staff, a session meant to “feel the evangelical pulse,” he’s said.

“We have direct access (to the White House),” Haggard told a Wall Street Journal reporter shortly before the last presidential election, adding that he could take a concern to the president through staff and get a response within 24 hours.

Asked Friday about the Haggard controversy, White House spokesman Tony Fratto downplayed the pastor’s connections to the Bush administration.

The Administration is always skirting the bounds of guilt by association, with the occasional resignation (most recently Rove’s #1 aide Susan Ralston due to her Abramoff connections). But according to them, it’s only isolated incidents, that nobody else knew about. And now that those few “bad apples” are gone, things can get back to normal. Of course, there have been an unusually high number of “bad apples” in the current White House Administration.

This is the same strategy the White House has used for pretty much ever crime committed by governmental employees under its watch- take the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for instance. Just a few “bad apples” and now that they’re gone, we can get back to normal. None of the things they did were authorized by their higher-ups (despite extensive testimony and evidence to the contrary), and none of their higher-ups knew what they were doing (despite extensive testimony and evidence to the contrary).

Filed under: Abramoff Scandal, Z-TDB Blog