Destination Scandal from the Washington Post

From sexual peccadilloes to Cold War conspiracies, we bring you Washington's more entertaining, more human, more seamy side. We've also compiled the Post stories that covered -- and in many cases exposed -- the scandals. Our curious observation: almost every sex scandal results in a tell-all memoir. We'll give you the book titles for your next trip to the library.

The two tours that follow will take you to the list of homes, office buildings and offices that make up Washington's Worst Addresses. Locations marked with the are within easy walking distance in downtown Washington, so you can take a short detour from your trip to the White House or the Smithsonian to check out some or all of these infamous sites. Or join local comedy group Gross National Product for the official Scandal Tours bus trip.

VISIT THE WASHINGTON POST DESTINATION: SCANDAL WEBSITE

TPM´s Great List of Scandalized Administration Officials

They've updated. So, folks, if you choose to vote Republican, this is the style of governing you will be voting for as represented by the character and the actions of the following individuals...

FROM TPM:
Since a complete catalog of administration officials who've been accused of some form of corruption or abuse of power would be endless, we tried to maintain a high standard for inclusion. Most of those below were the subjects of criminal probes, but we also included officials who were credibly accused of acts that, if not criminal, were a corruption of office (like the U.S. attorney scandal). And even then, such officials were only included if their accusers had them dead to rights (which is why Karl Rove didn't make the cut). We also limited ourselves to officials who were either political appointees or whose actions were so political that they were effectively political appointees (like John Tanner).

SEE THE LIST

More gay men describe sexual encounters with U.S. Sen. Craig

David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.

Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.

They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.

David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex.

Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005.

Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d'Alene.
Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s.

A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, offered a recent and telling account: He was in a men's restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Also on this page:

NOVAK VOICES DOUBTS

Conservative columnist Robert Novak has raised doubts about Sen. Larry Craig's truthfulness. In his syndicated column Sept. 3, Novak wrote that "several Republican senators and staffers were not a bit surprised" by Craig's guilty plea in connection with a sex sting.

On Oct. 5, the day after Craig reversed his pledge to resign, Novak elaborated on Bloomberg Television, saying he'd spoken to several Senate sources about Craig.

"They knew about it," Novak reported. "They knew he had this problem, and it was in the closet and it was not just a homosexual relationship, it was this weird, weird conduct."

UPDATE! The number is now up to eight men.

Ha ha ha ha ha... Bernie Kerik, Character Witness

Bernie Kerik vouches for Rudy on the Shag Fund (from the Times) ...

Bernard B. Kerik, who was Mr. Giuliani’s police commissioner when some of the charges were billed, said in an interview yesterday that the security detail’s travel expenses would normally come out of the Police Department’s budget.

“There would be no need for anyone to conceal his detail’s travel expenses,” said Mr. Kerik, who was indicted earlier this month on unrelated federal tax fraud and corruption charges. “And I think It’s ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the mayor or his staff attempted to do so.”

MORE...

Well, with a character witness like Bernie vouching for you, who needs credibility?

For more info on Bernie's qualifications as an expert character witness, see, "Ultimate Kerik Scandal List."

Rove Can't Claim "Executive Privilege" in U.S. Attorney Scandal

Looks like Rove and others in the Bushbot Gang are going to be on the hot seat:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate chairman acknowledged explicitly on Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter and therefore ruled illegal the president's executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former White House political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply "immediately" with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys.

"I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation," Leahy wrote.

The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy's panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate.

The executive privilege claim "is surprising in light of the significant and uncontroverted evidence that the president had no involvement in these firings," Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in his ruling. "The president's lack of involvement in these firings — by his own account and that of many others — calls into question any claim of executive privilege."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Ex-New Orleans prostitute says Sen. Vitter was a long-time client

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A former New Orleans prostitute who says she had an affair with U.S. Sen. David Vitter passed a lie detector test and will provide details of the four-month relationship on Tuesday at a press conference in Beverly Hills, according to publisher Larry Flynt.

Wendy Cortez alleges she had a sexual relationship with Vitter, R-La., in 1999 when he was a state representative in Louisiana's Legislature.

Flynt asked Cortez to take a lie detector test about the allegations after Vitter admitted links to a Washington escort service that federal prosecutors claim was a prostitution ring but denied having relationships with New Orleans prostitutes, according to a news release Monday announcing Flynt's press conference.

Copies of the polygraph test results for Cortez, whose real name is Wendy Ellis, will be provided to reporters, arrangers of the press conference said.

MORE...

Definition of Irony?

DEFINITION OF IRONY:

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) – "The chief executive has the duty and the obligation to be completely honest." [Sun-Sentinel, 12/19/98]

Former RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson - "Tragically, America could have been spared this entire sad saga if the president had told the truth in the first place." [U.S. Newswire 8/18/98]

A Possible Political Commercial for the Election Cycle?

Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results

Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results

By Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis, Free Press
Posted on April 23, 2007, Printed on April 23, 2007

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight federal prosecutors.

READ MORE

PTV'S TOP 10: The Greatest Political Web Videos of All Time

A President All Alone by Robert Novak

A President All Alone
by Robert Novak

Novak contrasts Republican support for the notion of pardoning Libby just two weeks ago with the current lack of "public GOP declarations of support" regarding AG Gonzalez.

Novak goes on to say:

But this is less a Gonzales problem than a Bush problem. With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.

Republicans in Congress do not trust their president to protect them.

AND:

But not many Republican lawmakers would speak up for Gonzales even if they were sure Bush would stick with him. He is the least popular Cabinet member on Capitol Hill, even more disliked than Rumsfeld was. The word most often used by Republicans to describe the management of the Justice Department under Gonzales is "incompetent."

Novak says one saving grace in all this for Republicans is that it takes some attention away from the unpopular war in Iraq.

He also says the "I-word" is being mentioned more often by Republicans. Incompetence. The Republicans on Capitol Hill that Novak has spoken with cite a "trifecta" of incompetence on the part of the Bush Administration: the Walter Reed hospital scandal, the FBI's misuse of the USA Patriot Act and the U.S. attorneys firing fiasco.

Only a trifecta?

READ THE COLUMN