"EIGHT YEARS WITHOUT A SEX SCANDAL" ... UNLESS YOU COUNT THESE

Pokey Anderson

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Sat Dec-27-08 10:47 PM
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"EIGHT YEARS WITHOUT A SEX SCANDAL" ... UNLESS YOU COUNT THESE

"EIGHT YEARS WITHOUT A SEX SCANDAL" ... UNLESS YOU COUNT THESE

by Pokey Anderson

December 27, 2008

Jeff Gannon, actually James Guckert, was a fake reporter using a pseudonym, yet was admitted routinely over a period of two years to the White House for press briefings. In his role as conservative reporter, he would lob softball questions at the White House press secretary or the President. He also seemed to have had inside knowledge of several major news events, one of which concerned Valerie Plame. The Secret Service records of Guckert's comings and goings at the White House are curious -- some of the days he checked into the White House, there were no press briefings. Some days he checked in, but didn't check out, or vice versa. Some days he stayed at the White House as long as six hours. <http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05212005.html> Guckert owned gay sex sites - all with a military theme and all encouraging gays in the military to join. The sites included hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com, and militaryescorts4m.com. Guckert advertised himself as a gay escort.

Paul Wolfowitz, Bush's nominee, was quite unsuccessful as head of the World Bank. He resigned in the wake of revelations about his girlfriend getting unusual salary increases.

Vice President Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington during a quail hunt at the Armstrong ranch in Texas in 2006. What remained unexplained, aside from why the 78-year-old lawyer looked like a quail to Cheney, was why the presence of an attractive woman at the ranch was kept under wraps as long as possible. Mrs. Cheney was not at the ranch. But, among the guests was someone initially called in news reports "another hunter," or "the third hunter" but not identified by name. U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Pamela Willeford was the third hunter.

A Texan, Pam Willeford had hosted a reception for Cheney when he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2004 <http://www.abc4.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=F9DD7A31-B259-47E5-ACF2-80A4EEC9DBAB>. "At first Ms. Armstrong declined to say who besides Mr. Cheney and her sister had been her guests, but she provided the names after The Austin American-Statesman learned of Ms. Willeford's presence. ... {Cheney's} wife, Lynne had also been expected but could not come at the last minute, Ms. Armstrong said." <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/politics/16tock.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print>

The Minerals Management Service inside the Department of Interior was the center of a sex, drugs and oil scandal. The amount the government lost in royalties due it from oil companies is unknown, but the potential has been estimated by the GAO as "between $21 billion and $53 billion annually." That would put it around the total amount allegedly lost by hedge fund manager Bernard Makoff, but in this instance the government may have lost it EACH YEAR! <http://www.propublica.org/article/second-interior-official-pleads-guilty-in-sex-drugs-and-oil-scandal-918>

There were many people in the Department of Interior who were investigated. For example: J. Steven Griles, former deputy secretary for the Department of Interior, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with Abramoff; was sentenced to 10 months in prison and $30,000 in fines.

Griles' girlfriend, Italia Federici, was a lobbyist who was a conduit between Griles and Jack Abramoff.

Elsewhere in the Bush administration, Brian Doyle was Deputy Press Secretary, Dept. of Homeland Security.

He resigned after being accused of sending sexually explicit material to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Doyle was arrested on April 4th, 2006 and pleaded no contest on September 19, 2006 to seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and sixteen counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor. On November 17th, 2006 Brian Doyle was sentenced to five years in state prison and ten years of probation. He will also need to register as a sex offender. <http://rinf.com/alt-news/politics/list-of-bush-administration-scandals/2148>

Randall Tobias, US Director of Foreign Assistance and head of US Agency for International Development with the rank of Deputy Secretary of State since March 29, 2006.

Before this he was the US's first Global AIDS Coordinator (October 2003) where he criticized condom use, discouraged outreach to sexworkers, and promoted abstinence only programs. As Director of Foreign Assistance, he continued to oversee the Global AIDS program. He resigned April 27, 2007 after it came out that he had been named as using a Washington escort service. <http://www.netrootsmass.net/hughs-bush-scandals-list> (See also DC Madam, below.)

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's number 3 rank before leaving the agency in 2006, got an updated indictment on May 20, 2008. The federal indictment alleged Foggo accepted tens of thousands of dollars in meals, vacations, and other perks in exchange for helping his friend Brent Wilkes get various contracts with the CIA.

The indictment also alleged that Foggo received sexual companionship and "enrichment of a mistress" though the allegations are not detailed. According to the AP, "Wilkes has already pleaded guilty to paying bribes to then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., some of which came in the form of prostitutes." (http://www.truthout.org/article/kyle-foggo-indicted-again-duke-cunningham-case)

US Rep. Mark Foley, who had served as chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, sent sexually explicit messages to House pages, at minimum. Foley was known to be "spending too much time with pages" as early as 2000 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101639.html>. In 2003, allegedly, "Foley was seen drunk outside the pages' dormitory after the 10 p.m. curfew, trying to get in." <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101639.html>

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was criticized for protecting Foley in earlier incidents.

Family values proponent Senator Larry Craig, toe-tapping in a Minneapolis airport men's room.

Senator David Vitter and diapers, need I say more. He was implicated in the DC Madam scandal.

And, DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found dead of apparent suicide.

Blogger Paul David Collins wrote that he asked legendary former NYPD detective James Rothstein if Palfrey's operation could be "considered a sex ring connected to the power elite and the intelligence community meant to compromise important political figures. James Rothstein not only answered yes, but also made it clear that the D.C. Madam's outfit could not exist in Washington, D.C. unless it was a tool of elites and dark factions in the intelligence community." <http://www.newsfollowup.com/politics.htm> In other words, they appear to be suggesting this was an operation to get decisionmakers in compromising positions, then demand votes or other actions from them, unless they wanted to face being exposed.

Reminds me of something written about former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, who made Hastert the Speaker of the House.

"During the eight years he served as majority whip, DeLay made it his business to know everything about every one of his members. He knew who had money problems, who had marital problems, who had drinking problems, and who had deviated from the official mores of the Republican House: abstinence, heterosexual relationships among consenting unmarried adults, marital fidelity, and discreet infidelity." -- "The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money and the United States Congress," published September 2004, by Lou Dubose, p. 270.