One Swampy Mess
Republicans came to power pledging--in their own words--to drain the swamp of special interests in Washington and restore integrity to the White House and the Congress. Instead, President Bush's second term is mired in potential scandal and demonstrable incompetence. The reputation of the president as a strong, effective leader has eroded, leaving him susceptible to the second-term collapse that has been the fate of so many presidents. Indeed, at this point, Bush's second term could hardly look worse.
Special interests, did they say? How about the huge tax reductions and tax privileges for Republican constituencies, lobbyists, and corporations? Look at the recent multibillion-dollar tax incentives for the energy industry, while the move to wipe out the inheritance tax primarily benefits the top 1 percent of our wealthiest families--all at a time of monster budget deficits of the president's very own making.
Integrity? How about political appointees, such as David Safavian, the chief procurement official in charge of spending around $300 billion? He's accused of obstructing justice by lying about his mentor, Jack Abramoff, the superstar lobbyist with extraordinary access to Republican power brokers on Capitol Hill like Tom DeLay. It was DeLay who initiated the so-called K Street project, named after the Washington business corridor where most big-time lobbyists have their offices.
Lobbying firms were pushed to hire Republicans, or risk losing traction on Capitol Hill. Hire they did. DeLay transformed the lobbying world into a Republican money machine. The object was to put more Republican bottoms on the seats of the House and Senate--and the bottoms voted for government favors for the contributors. DeLay's headlong drive bumped up repeatedly against ethical and legal boundaries, and he has now been forced to step aside as majority leader.
Smell test. Then there's Abramoff, the "hole in one" poster child for the lobbyists. Abramoff helped casinos run by Indian tribes escape federal taxes and then induced them to deliver fat campaign contributions to his political allies. Then, of course, there are the "fact-finding trips" Abramoff arranged for his congressional buddies, especially to casinos with golf courses. Abramoff's fees, totaling tens of millions of dollars, also boosted the fortunes of a small group of Republicans, including the antitax activist Grover Norquist and his former partner, Safavian. They have been just the most conspicuous among the army of lobbyists that has nearly doubled, to 35,000, in the five years of the Bush presidency. That's draining the swamp?
And that's not all. Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was just the latest beneficiary of the hoary Washington tradition that it's not what you know but who. Meanwhile, over at the White House, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is being grilled once again by a special prosecutor for whatever role he may have had in the naming of a covert CIA officer to the media. On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is also being put on the griddle--by the SEC. Why? He holds stock--through what was described as a blind trust--in a company his father founded and where his brother was chairman and is now a director. Shortly before a weaker than expected earnings report, which drove down the stock price, Frist instructed the trustees to sell stock. Frist denies he had inside information; he was, he says, trying to avoid a potential conflict of interest. This doesn't pass the smell test since in his first 11 years in the Senate he repeatedly denied that these shares constituted a conflict.
There is, however, at least a shining exception among the Republican clay feet: John McCain. The Arizona senator and former prisoner of war basically opposes the whole idea of mobilizing interest groups to win control of the government in return for political payback. He chaired the Indian Affairs Committee hearings that exposed Abramoff's role. He led the investigation revealing that a Pentagon contract officer was negotiating a $20 billion-plus deal with Boeing to lease refueling tankers--while she was also entertaining a job offer from the company. She went to jail, and the contract was canceled. McCain was also the front half of the McCain-Feingold Act's attempt to cut back corrupt campaign dollars.
With the Democrats once in power feeling so righteous about their public policies that they think they can do whatever they want in their private lives, and the Republicans so righteous about their private lives that they think they can do whatever they want with respect to public policy, is it any surprise that respect for our government has been so diminished? Today, the number of Americans who say they trust government is down to just 29 percent, from 40 percent a mere five years ago.
The only way for Mr. Bush to save his second term from ignominy is to confront the evils now all around him.
This story appears in the October 17, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.