Abstract

Soprano Republicans

The author discusses charges of corruption against the administration of U.S. president George W. Bush and Republican legislators. For some time, we've argued that the most significant deficit George W. Bush has overseen is his own credibility gap. And there's increasing evidence that the corruption of Bush and the Republican leadership goes beyond lying, to general thuggishness. Exhibit A: the Valerie Plame case. After Administration officials outed Plame, a CIA officer (whose job was to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction), apparently to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson--a White House critic--no steps were taken to identify and punish the culprits. Republican staffers stole thousands of confidential memos from the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee by entering private computer space reserved for them. And how did GOP senators initially respond to the news? They opposed an investigation. On the other side of the Hill, the House ethics panel has been conducting what it calls an "informal fact-finding" mission regarding Republican Representative Nick Smith's claim that GOP leaders offered him "bribes and special deals"--including contributions to his son's Congressional campaign--if he would vote for the Medicare prescription-drug bill the White House was pushing. It's not just the lies. Bribery, intimidation, theft, funny-money schemes--the Republicans are racking up a record that would make Tony Soprano proud.