Bush Scandals Unlimited

Free Falling Credibility. Every time the Bush administration thinks they've hit bottom, things get worse. The Mark Foley scandal broke just when the Bush administration thought they could curtail Democratic gains in the 2006 election. As a result, everything the Bush administration did to limit damage from other scandals, defend controversial figures like Donald Rumsfeld, and promote the war was wasted.

Killing the Surge with Scandal. The same thing's happening now with the surge. The Republicans have made a big effort to sell Gen. David Petraeus as the magician general who could turn their investment of 21,000 more troops into the political bonanza of a stable Iraq and functioning democracy. But the whole two-month public relations campaign for the surge has been forgotten as the Scooter Libby conviction, federal prosecutor purge, and Walter Reed scandal take over the headlines. The Bush administration loves to be hyper-aggressive with its enemies abroad and at home, but the triple whammy of scandals is forcing them into a defensive shell.

A Cloud in Every Silver Lining. Someone looking for a Republican silver lining might point out that having all these scandals at once blunts the impact of each scandal because of the media's short attention span. That true as far as it goes, but it's not like we can't expect more scandals from the Bush administration the future.

When you're running an unpopular renegade government, there's a cloud in every silver lining.