Josh Marshall nails the problem

It would be nice if we had a press corps that actually cared about corruption as much as they cared about dinner parties.

The problem is a network of criminal activity stretching from the House of Representatives (and, to a lesser degree, the Senate) to K Street and then into the Executive Branch -- a network of bribery, money-laundering and fraud all aimed at selling public policy and official actions not in exchange for political contributions but money rewards to members of Congress, administration officials and their families.

It's not an abstract problem or a merely a few politicians lining their pockets or high-speed log-rolling. As Schmitt puts it, it's a betrayal-of-public-trust, a group of high-ranking politicians who've committed crimes against their constituents and a Republican establishment that wasn't against it then and can't bring itself to turn the folks in even now.

To date, the president hasn't even pledged to cooperate with the investigation, despite the fact that one member of his administration is already under indictment, another is under active investigation and another member of the White Hosue staff was a principal participant in many of the scams about which Jack Abramoff has now agreed to testify.

Pretty much the same applies to Denny Hastert.

In Congress, these aren't backbenchers. It's the former Majority Leader, several of his key allies, at least one committee chairman, probably two or three more, and various officials in the executive branch.

This isn't Wayne Hayes employing a hooker as a secretary; it is the wide-spread misuse of power and money. It's putting you, the tax payer, on the hook to the conman and treating you, not just like a pawn, but like a chump. Marshall goes on to add.

And as long as we're discussing it, does anyone notice that every corruption case we're now talking about -- Abramoff, Cunningham, and pretty much all the rest -- either started or shifted into high gear right about the time that George Bush was elected?

Think about it.

If the press gets off their asses, I think more than just throwing out the bromide "worst President ever" we are actually going to find substantial evidence of that fact.

Grant and Harding's Administrations have always set the gold standard of out and out theft, but neither of them were involved other than appointing and trusting the crooks -- they were simply grossly incompetent. Nixon has set the standard for personal malfeasance of a President through his own actions; Buchanan and Pierce have always been standard bearers for not just watching as disasters came, but helping to strike the match. Polk has always been the clear example the nation had for starting and fighting illegal wars -- poor LBJ always coming in second even in the bad stuff.

Well, in George Bush we have managed to have a confluence of events. We have the incompetent detachment of a Grant & Harding; the malevolence of a Nixon; the pettiness of Buchanan & Pierce; and the war mongering of Polk all in one smirking little package.

Oh how fortunate are we to live in such historical times?