Scandals Playbook

You've heard a lot in recent days about the Abramoff scandal and its far reaching effects that started with payoffs from Indian tribes in their attempts to either achieve tribal recognition or to getting approval to put up a casino on lands that may or may not be ancestral tribal lands. In the same Time article that talked about the Abramoff scandals just look who was Abramoff's 'connection' to those in power chiefly, Karl Rove, White House mastermind, - one Ralph Reed, former head of the 'Christian Coalition', the guy who once said that gambling was a 'cancer on the body politic'. Reed had no problem being the 'go to' guy when Abramoff needed a favor. After all, he and Abramoff were former roommates, especially when Abramoff didn't want the someone who was a big supporter of John McCain to get a government job. Ralphie is now running as Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, let's hope as more of the primarily Republican scandals heat up before this falls elections.

Now for the Playbook for the other scandal, 'Plamegate', where the Administration tries to discredit any and all critics, here is the who's who of all the main players:

George Bush - President
Dick Cheney - Vice president
Karl Rove - Top Bush Aide
Lewis Libby - Top Cheney Aide
Stephen Hadley - Deputy National Security Advisor
Ari Fleischer - former White House Press Secretary
Scott McClellan - current White House Press Secretary
Marc Grossman - Under Secretary of State

Patrick Fitzgerald - Special Prosecutor (Remember how popular they were under Clinton?)
Joseph Wilson - CIA Envoy
George Tenet - former CIA director

Nicholas Kristof - New York Times
Tim Russert - NBC
Judith Miller - New York Times
Bob Novak
Matt Cooper - Time

It would be helpful to keep a pad of paper handy to list all the main players of the Ken Lay/ENRON implosion to see who this particular scandal, the largest case of corporate crime in US history will touch. You can do what the intelligence community failed to do pre-911: Connec the dots.

Is it any wonder why House Republicans chose John Boehner as their majority leader. They firmly rejected Tom DeLay's choice. A chain smoker, no wonder why he takes so much money from the tobacco industry and supports their interests.

I have completed my tour of Haunted Alabama, the first of the fifty states - There are 220 haunted sites in Alabama. Let's see how many I can complete in time for Halloween.