Scandals & Animals

I was going to give each of these scandals their due but since WaPo did a good job of summarizing them, here goes:

"White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks."
[...] "The indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for alleged campaign funding illegalities has thrown Republicans into one of the most tumultuous periods of their 11-year reign and created the prospect of a leadership battle. And while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) deals with a subpoena in an insider-trading investigation, a bipartisan majority rebuked Bush over torture policies."
[...] "Republicans are particularly anxious about the sprawling investigations of conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose business and political dealings regularly brought him into contact with dozens of lawmakers and top White House officials."

Molly Ivins, the delightful Texan columnist, also serves up the goods (and in a much wittier and trenchant way than those sober, WaPo guys).

Want a more police-blotter'ish twist? The good people at the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (seriously, that's what they're called) really deliver the goods in their "13 Ethically challenged members of congress" report. Really, at this point I think the 2008 Republican convention would have to be held in San Quentin or something. Very dirty. A dirty, dirty bunch.

And lest we throw stones, we have now have a new Canadian scandal to call our own: a gum scandal. Yep. Former RC Mint head, David Dingwall, bought a pack of gum with that most sacrosanct of currencies: "taxpayer money!" Yep, yep, I'll bet that Dingwall fella just sat around and had a good chew--on our dime, dagnabbit :) To be sure, there is a lot more to come about the buyin's and chewin's of the former Grit (car allowances etc.) but you can't help but laugh when you read "Wrigleygate" written in black & white. Luckily we have Charles Gordon over at Rabble.ca to help bring us some scandal-perspective.

Now if all this graft, ooze and...uh...gum has left you in need of a Silkwood-grade shower, might I suggest we turn now to the Animals segment of this post. Just look at this cub and tell me there isn't some good left in this world. Behold the awesome power of cute!

See? All better. (photos courtesy of MSNBC/National Zoo/Smithsonian)