[Mb-civic] Scandals Take Toll On Bush's 2nd Term - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Scandals Take Toll On Bush's 2nd Term

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 14, 2005; Page A01

A series of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in 
Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract 
aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already 
weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House 
advisers.

With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand 
jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's 
presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion 
that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's 
nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately 
bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be 
indicted in the next two weeks.

Bush's main partners on Capitol Hill likewise are spending time 
defending themselves as the president's legislative initiatives founder. 
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.

Most of the scandals have little direct connection with one another, but 
their accumulation in a compressed period has challenged a White House 
already beset by political problems stemming from the Iraq war, 
Hurricane Katrina and high gasoline prices, according to Republican 
advisers close to the Bush team, several of whom said they could speak 
candidly only if they were not identified by name.

"The Rove thing has gotten to be enormously distracting," said one 
outside adviser to the White House. "Knowing the way the White House 
works, being under subpoena like this, your mind is not on your work, 
it's on that."

"It looks like a perfect storm," said Joseph E. diGenova, a Republican 
and former independent counsel, who noted that so many investigations 
can weigh on an administration. "People have no idea what happens when 
an investigation gets underway. It's debilitating. It's not just 
distracting. It's debilitating. It's like getting punched in the stomach."

Beyond the short-term problems, 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. 
Among insiders, he was one of the most familiar faces among the 
generation of operatives and lobbyists who came of age when Republicans 
took control of Congress after the 1994 elections.

"The one that people are most worried about is Abramoff because it seems 
to have such long tentacles," said former congressman Vin Weber 
(R-Minn.), a lobbyist with close ties to the White House. "This seems to 
be something that could spread almost anywhere . . . and that has a lot 
of people worried."

The Abramoff scandal has already resulted in two unanticipated 
casualties: David H. Safavian, a former Rove business partner serving as 
the top White House procurement official, recently resigned and was 
arrested on charges that he lied about and impeded an investigation into 
his dealings with Abramoff. And Timothy E. Flanigan, Bush's nominee for 
deputy attorney general, the number two job at the Justice Department, 
withdrew last week after questions were raised about his interactions 
with the lobbyist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301955.html
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