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1969
"The Chappaquiddick
Incident"
After the
assassinations of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Bobby Kennedy in
1968, many looked to youngest brother (Edward M.) Ted Kennedy
for carrying the Kennedy torch once again into the White House in 1972.
That all ended on July 18, 1969. It was Regatta Weekend on Martha’s
Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Teddy was co-hosting a party at a rented
cottage on neighboring Chappaquiddick Island. Attending the party was Mary Jo Kopechne,
an attractive, young, former campaign worker for slain brother, Bobby.
Just before midnight, Teddy and Mary Jo left alone. A short time later,
Teddy drove his car off the Dike Road bridge, less than a mile and a
half from the cottage. Teddy escaped without serious injury, but Mary
Jo drowned in the submerged, upside-down car. The accident went
unreported for over 8 hours, which fueled speculation that Teddy was
drunk at the time of the accident. Although no charges were ever filed
against him as a result of the Investigation,
Teddy’s chances for winning the presidency sank on that fateful night.
The cards…
1973
"The
Agnew Capers"
On
October 10, 1973, Spiro T. Agnew
became the first Vice President in U.S. history to be driven from
office under a cloud of misconduct and scandal. The charges included
acts of Extortion
and Bribery,
stretching over a 10-year period and involved at least $87,500. Agnew
was so bold that he reportedly had illegal payments delivered directly
to the Vice President’s office. As a result of a plea bargain, Agnew
pled Nolo Contendere (no-contest) to federal Tax Evasion, accepted a
criminal sentence and Resigned
the Vice Presidency. The sentence was three years of unsupervised
probation and a $10,000 fine. In return, the government agreed not to
prosecute Agnew for the extortion and bribery charges. The Agnew
resignation certainly shocked the country, but there was a much bigger
storm brewing in the Nixon Administration. On September 18, 1996, Spiro
Theodore Agnew died at the age of 77.
The cards…
1973
"Watergate"
No one could have
guessed that a “third-rate” burglary at the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate apartment and office
complex, would lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon
and the indictment of some 40 Government officials. The long list of
Nixon advisors who were convicted included Nixon’s Campaign Manager and
first Attorney General, John Mitchell, and G. Gordon Liddy,
who was in charge of a previous burglary. The investigation and
televised Congressional
Hearings exposed a variety of shady White House activities,
including those of a special investigations unit, known as The Plumbers
to plug news leaks, and a Dirty Tricks squad to disrupt
Democratic campaigns. The hearings also revealed the existence of a
taping system, and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox wanted the tapes.
Nixon wanted the investigation stopped and ordered that Cox be fired.
In a Saturday night news conference, now known as the Saturday Night
Massacre, the White House announced that Attorney General Elliot
Richardson has resigned and that Deputy Attorney General William
Ruckelshaus has been dismissed after refusing to fire Cox. After a
flood of criticism, Nixon handed over the tapes. One shocking
disclosure followed another. The White House said that two subpoenaed
conversations had never been taped and one had a very suspicious and
now infamous 18-½
Minute Gap. Scores of impeachment bills were introduced in the
House and Nixon’s impeachment was imminent. He Resigned
the presidency in disgrace, effective noon on August 9, 1974, becoming
the first president to resign in U.S. history. In a televised speech on
September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford granted Nixon a “full, free,
and absolute pardon for all offenses against the United States which he
has committed or may have committed or taken part in…” On April
22, 1994, Richard Milhous Nixon died at the age of 81.
The cards…
1974
"The
Fanne Foxe
Affair"
One of the more
colorful scandals in recent U.S. history involved Congressman Wilbur Mills
of Arkansas and his longtime girlfriend, Mrs. Eduardo (Annabelle)
Battistella. Mrs. Battistella worked as a stripper at the Silver
Slipper night club and was better known by her stage name: Fanne Foxe,
the "Argentine
Firecracker". After a night of partying in October, 1974, Mills,
Foxe and a couple of friends were stopped at 2 a.m. by the Park Police
while driving with the headlights off. Foxe jumped from the car and
into the nearby Tidal Basin,
and had to be pulled out by the police. Mills was visibly intoxicated
and bleeding from his nose and scratches on his face. A TV cameraman
was on hand and caught the incident on film. After another highly
publicized incident with Foxe, Mills resigned from the Ways and Means
Committee and declined to seek reelection in 1976 (Career Ender).
Mills was 65; Battistella was 38.
The cards…
1976
"D.C.
Fringe Benefits"
For two years, Elizabeth Ray
was on the payroll of Representative Wayne Hays,
chairman of the House Administration Committee. Ray had a desk, a
phone, a typewriter and a healthy taxpayer-funded salary, but claimed
she was paid not for her office work but for being Hays' mistress. She
told the Washington Post that “I can’t type, I can’t file, I can’t even
answer the phone”. She “worked” a few hours a week in her plush office
behind an unmarked door. She said “Supposedly, I’m on the oversight
committee, but I call it the Out-of-Sight
Committee. The revelation ended Hays' congressional career (Career Ender),
and he almost ended his life with an overdose of prescription pills.
Despite investigations into his indiscretions, he was never tried. Hays
was 64; Ray was 27.
The cards…
1980
"The
Abscam Sting"
In a 1980 FBI sting
operation, The FBI created a front organization called Abdul
Enterprises, Ltd. Its agents then posed as associates of an Arab
sheik and offered selected public officials money or other
considerations in exchange for special favors. The videotaped meetings
netted Senator Harrison Williams and Representatives Richard Kelly,
Michael “Ozzie” Myers, Frank Thompson, Raymond Lederer and John
Jenrette (who was also known for having sex with his wife on the
Capitol steps). Most notorious was Richard Kelly, who was seen on the
videotape stuffing $25,000 in cash in his jacket pocket, and then
asking “Does
it Show?” The Six Congressmen
were convicted of Bribery
and Conspiracy
in separate trials in 1981. Another Congressman, John Murphy, was
convicted of a lesser charge. The FBI's tactics raised questions about
entrapment, and the conviction of Kelly was overturned in 1982. Most of
the politicians resigned or did not seek reelection when their terms
expired, but Myers had to be kicked out. He became the first House
member to be expelled since the Civil War. Williams did not resign
until his expulsion was imminent.
The cards…
1986
"The
Iran-Contra Operations"
In October and
November of 1986, the public learned of two secret U.S. Government
operations. The Administration of President Ronald Reagan
was illegally selling weapons to Iran (at inflated prices), and
diverting the funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels, which was also
illegal. The Independent
Counsel for Iran-Contra matters concluded among many things that
policies behind both the Iran and contra operations were fully reviewed
and developed at the highest levels of the Administration, though there
was no proof that Reagan himself knew of the operations (Plausible
Deniability). The Congressional
Hearings were enlivened by the testimony of Fawn Hall,
secretary to National Security Counsel (NSC) staff member Colonel Oliver North.
Hall offered crucial details that proved the extent of the NSC's Cover-up
of the operations. Hall also testified that she altered some documents
and stole others, hiding them in her clothes. She shredded so many
documents that the office shredder jammed and broke down. Trials were
held for North, and former National Security Advisor Rear Admiral John
Poindexter. Both Poindexter and North were convicted, but their
convictions were reversed on appeal. Fourteen persons were charged with
criminal violations in the affair.
The cards…
1987
"The
Monkey Business Affair"
Senator Gary Hart
was the clear front-runner in his bid to become the Democrat’s
presidential candidate in the 1988 election, but rumors of his
philandering ways were swirling around him. Defiantly, Hart said the
reports were preposterous and inaccurate, and challenged reporters to
follow him around, claiming that there was nothing to see. The Miami
Herald took him up on it, and sent reporters to stake out his Capitol
Hill townhouse. Donna Rice
came to visit one Friday night in May and didn't leave until the
following evening. The news story, along with earlier photos of Hart
and Rice’s public displays of affection on a friend's yacht, "Monkey
Business", sent Hart's campaign into a nose-dive. Three weeks into his
bid for the presidency, Hart pulled out of the race (Career Ender).
The cards…
1989
"The
Keating Five"
When the Lincoln
Savings and Loan Association collapsed in 1989, it was the largest
S&L failure in U.S. history, and it was estimated that a government
bail-out of Lincoln would cost the taxpayers over two billion dollars.
The Chairman of Lincoln’s parent company, Charles Keating,
Jr. was accused of being personally responsible for the failure. During
the House Banking Committee hearings, Edwin Gray, Chairman of the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board, said that he had been approached by
influential senators to discontinue the investigation of the Lincoln
S&L. It was later revealed that five senators had received over 1.3
million dollars in direct and indirect campaign contributions from
Keating. The five senators, or The Keating Five as they came to be
known, were: Alan Cranston
of California, Dennis DeConcini
of Arizona, John Glenn
of Ohio, John
McCain of Arizona, and Donald Riegle
of Michigan. In August, 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee recommended
the censure of Cranston for reprehensible conduct. The other four were
noted for questionable conduct.
The cards…
1990
"The
Barry Bust"
The "bitch set me up"
exclaimed Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry
after he was caught with his close personal friend, Rasheeda Moore, in
a Washington hotel room on January 18, 1990. In an FBI Sting,
Moore, a former model turned government informant, invited Barry to her
room at the Vista, which was monitored by FBI agents. After years of
federal investigation into Barry's alleged drug use, they had him. The
agents burst in to catch Barry with crack pipe in hand. He was brought
to trial to face 14 separate Drug Charges
but was Convicted
on only one count of cocaine possession.
The cards…
1991
"Here
Come Da Judge"
The Senate's
confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas,
nominee to a seat on the Supreme Court, appeared to be moving along
smoothly until Anita Hill
came along with allegations of Sexual
Harassment. Hill alleged that while she had worked at the EEOC
nearly a decade earlier, Thomas had badgered her for dates and told
stories in her presence about pornographic film scenes and his own
sexual prowess. Hill claimed that Thomas's actions made it difficult
for her to do her job and even caused physical distress. The televised Congressional
Hearings, during which Hill, Thomas, and several witnesses on
both sides testified about the allegations, were among the most widely
viewed political events in television history. Thomas denied any
wrongdoing, and characterized the hearings as a “Hi-Tech Lynching”.
In the end, Thomas was confirmed by a narrow 52-48 margin.
The cards…
1992
"The
Packwood 29"
While serving in
Congress for more than a quarter-century, Oregon Senator Bob Packwood
was the reigning king of Sexual
Harassment. A former staffer said Packwood called her to his
office, pinned her against a wall, groped her body and breasts and
pressed against her "so closely that I could not move." A former
part-time operator of the private Senate elevator said Packwood
demanded a kiss almost every time he got aboard. The Senate Ethics
Committee found Packwood sexually harassed at least 17 women, mostly
Senate employees and campaign workers. In all, a whopping 29 Women
had accused Packwood of sexual misconduct. Packwood Resigned
in the fall of 1995 after the Ethics Committee voted for his expulsion
from the Senate.
The cards…
1994
"Jones
v. Clinton"
In February 1994, Paula Jones
publicly accused President Bill Clinton
of Sexual
Harassment. She claimed that the incident occurred in 1991 when
Clinton was Governor of Arkansas and she was a state employee. Jones
said that she waited two years to make the charge because she feared
not being believed. On April 1, 1998, the case was thrown out by U.S.
District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright, who ruled that even if
Jones’s claims were true, they did not constitute sexual assault or
harassment according to the law. Jones appealed the decision and
finally settled with Clinton for an estimated $850,000. The Country
first learned of the president’s involvement with Monica Lewinsky when
she was subpoenaed by Jones’s attorneys in December, 1997. In October,
1998, on a 258-176 vote, Bill Clinton was Impeached
by the House of Representatives on charges of Perjury
and Obstruction
of Justice. He was acquitted of all charges by the Senate on
February 12, 1999.
The cards…
1998
"Monica
Madness"
In 1995, while an
intern at the White House, 21-year old Monica Lewinsky
began a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton.
After moving to the Defense Department in 1996 she met and became
friends with Linda Tripp,
a career government worker. Tripp began illegally recording their
telephone conversations in which she described her relationship with
the president. Tripp contacted the office of Whitewater Independent
Counsel Ken
Starr to talk about Lewinsky and the tapes she made. The tapes
indicated that Clinton and his friend Vernon Jordan may have told
Lewinsky to lie about the alleged affair under oath in the Jones v.
Clinton matter. A panel of three federal judges agreed to allow
Starr to formally investigate the possibility of subornation of perjury
and obstruction of justice in the Paula Jones case. As part of a plea
agreement, Lewinsky had to hand over to prosecutors a Blue Dress
with an undisclosed stain that supposedly contained proof of a sexual
relationship with Clinton.
The cards…
2002
"Beam
Me Up"
After a two month
trial, one of the most flamboyant members of Congress, Jim Traficant,
was Convicted
of Bribery,
Racketeering,
and other Federal charges. Although not an attorney, Trafficant
represented himself at trial, and railed against the Judge and Federal
prosecutors. The prosecutors, he said, targeted him because he defeated
them in previous Federal bribery case. His testimony before the House
Ethics Committee consisted of profanity laced tirades, and on July 24,
2002, Traficant, who often ended his bombastic speeches on the House
floor with the cry “Beam Me Up”, became only the second member of
Congress to be Expelled
since the Civil War.
The cards…
2003
"The
Immaculate Insertion"
During the military
buildup to Operation Iraqi Freedom, President George W. Bush
was being criticized for rushing to war and was viewed by much of the
world as a “Texas
Cowboy”. His critics said that there was no evidence of an Iraqi
connection to 9-11 or Al Qaeda, and no imminent threat from
Iraq’s WMD
(Weapons of Mass Destruction). The administration
countered that the “smoking gun” would be a mushroom cloud over an
American city, and in his State Of The Union Address on January 28,
2003, President Bush made his case for a pre-emptive war. He said that
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa”. The controversy began
when it was learned that the claim was removed from a previous
presidential speech because the CIA did not believe there was a uranium
purchase. The President’s defenders said the claim was Just 16 Words
in a 5,400 word speech, and that it was “technically accurate”. Despite
lively Congressional
Hearings, it’s still unknown how a bogus claim on such an
important matter got back into Bush’s State of the Union Address on the
eve of war. In January, 2005, the Bush administration acknowledged that
the search for WMD in Iraq had ended and none had been found.
The cards…
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