Scandal Jitters

Twin pieces in the WaPo and NYT today on Washington's undropped shoes are very much worth reading. Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker in the Post write that the multitude of suddenly-emerging scandals "have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration." Between the Abramoff investigation, DeLay's indictment, the Plame-name leak investigation, Katrina, and whatever other troubles I've forgotten, things are "enormously distracting" at the moment.

The Times piece, by Richard Stevenson, is similar, but focuses mainly on the leak investigation as Rove goes before the grand jury for the fourth time today. Stevenson notes the fact that most second-term administrations "come to a point like this, at risk of being paralyzed internally and frozen externally in the klieg lights of scandal."

VandeHei and Baker end their article by speculating that Rove and Libby "the two most powerful staffers in the federal government, could be indicted by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald within two weeks. While the idea struck many on the Bush team as unfathomable a few months ago, now the common assumption is that both men could be in trouble." Stevenson says many White House allies are "in near panic" about the potential departure of Rove, "fearful that without him the administration would lose the one person capable of enforcing discipline across a party that has become increasingly fractious and that is almost at war with itself over the president's nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court."

What goes up must come down. The hubris of this administration has been at astronomical levels for the past five years, and maybe now the lot of them will start to experience a little taste of reality. It's hard indeed to shed a tear.