The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has put together a list of the top ten ethics scandals of the past year; I think the list should be an even dozen to include the CIA interrogation tape destruction scandal now rocking the headlines, plus the wiretapping scandal — which is just as egregious to me as the other corruption stories. Here are my snipped faves, but click here for more:
— Senate Ethics Committee looking into Sen. Larry Craig, but not Sen. David Vitter: Craig, R-Idaho, is defending himself against charges that he solicited sex from an undercover male law enforcement officer in an airport restroom. Vitter, R-La., was outed as a client of an alleged prostitution ring run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey of Vallejo, the “D.C. madam,” after his phone number appeared in her records.
— Millions of missing White House e-mails still unaccounted for: CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking information and backup copies of more than 5 million e-mails deleted from White House computer servers between 2003 and 2005.
— White House possibly covering up its role in the firings of the U.S. attorneys: Congressional investigations of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys have been stymied as the White House keeps key players, including former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten from testifying.
— No Child Left Behind funds directed to Bush fundraisers who provide inadequate reading materials for kids: A Department of Education inspector general’s probe found that Bush-connected companies and donors got contracts for providing reading materials found to be of questionable value.
— FEMA knowingly let Katrina victims live in hazardous trailers: Records indicate the Federal Emergency Management Agency had cautioned its workers about trailers contaminated with formaldehyde. But the agency has been accused of delaying testing for the substance in trailers occupied by people left homeless by the hurricane. Link.