It never rains but it pours, as the people of Louisiana know to their cost. Since Hurricane Katrina hit in August, United States President George W Bush and the Republicans have been inundated by a rising tide of sleaze allegations.
Bush’s bungling in Katrina’s aftermath cost him dearly. His approval rating fell to a record low last month, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, with only 42% of Americans satisfied with his performance. But incompetence is one thing, corrupt practices another.
Claims that lucrative post-Katrina rebuilding contracts were doled out to firms with ties to the White House are now under official investigation.
That inquiry is only one of many suddenly swirling around Bush. Tom DeLay, his close ally and Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, was forced to stand down last week after a Texas grand jury charged him with conspiracy. Bill Frist, the Senate’s Republican leader, is under investigation for alleged insider share-dealing. And commentators predict more to come.
”DeLay’s latest plight is only a tiny detail within [a] vast Boschian canvas of depravity,’’ said Frank Rich, a New York Times columnist. ”Conservatives have outsourced government to the highest bidder … Fasten your seatbelt for the roller coaster of other revelations that is about to roar through the Beltway [Washington DC].’’
Particular focus is on scandals directly affecting the White House. A special prosecutor’s inquiry into the illegal, politically motivated leaking of a CIA agent’s name to the media has reportedly implicated Lewis Libby, chief-of-staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove, Bush’s political strategist.
A new Government Accountability Office report says unlawful media manipulation amounting to ”covert propaganda’’ by the Bush administration became systematic. Tax- payers’ money was used to purchase favourable news coverage, partly by paying supposedly independent commentators, it said.
And last month a senior official in the White House Office of Management and Budget was arrested on charges of obstructing investigations into Republican lobbyists known as ”Beltway bandits’’. All these inquiries could produce sensational disclosures and indictments, or so opponents hope.
Every administration has its scandals. No president save Richard Nixon has succumbed in modern times and so far Bush is not accused of personal wrongdoing. But the ethics storm battering the Republicans may further weaken his authority, imperil his already modest legislative agenda (including promised additional tax cuts), and feed concerns about the administration’s honesty over Iraq.
Democrats hope this offers a way back. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, has led the charge, condemning ”a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people’’. More worrying for Bush, who does not face re- election and has an eye on his legacy, is rising criticism from his conservative base. The Wall Street Journal said the government-shrinking aims of Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican revolution have been betrayed by a new generation of political fat cats infected with the ”arrogance of power’’.
”The Republican Congress has become mostly about money and muscle,’’ the Journal said. ”The real danger for Republicans isn’t ethics. It is that, like the Democrats in 1994, they seem to have become more comfortable presiding over the government than changing it.’’ — Â