White House under seige

U.S. News & World Report just published an interesting story about the state of the Bush administration.

An excerpt:
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In Washington, a few words can have ugly consequences. It might not have taken all that much newspaper ink to print the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame for the first time, but the July 2003 disclosure set off a dramatic chain of events that could end up altering the entire course of President Bush's second term in office.

The most immediate result of the tightly held two-year investigation by special federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the influential chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, on charges of perjury, false statements, and obstruction of justice. In past administrations, where vice presidents tended to play more ornamental roles, this might not have been such big news. But Cheney ranks as perhaps the most powerful vice president in history. As the hand behind the throne, he was central in shaping Bush's approach to national security and, in particular, the controversial decision to go to war with Iraq. Libby, as Cheney's national security adviser, was at the heart of devising the administration's case for the invasion. "If it is proven that a chief of staff of the vice president went before a federal grand jury and lied under oath repeatedly and fabricated a story about how he learned this information . . . that is a very, very serious matter," Fitzgerald said. "That, to me, defines a serious breach of the public trust."

Libby, who denied the accusations, resigned as soon as the indictment was made public, but the crisis for the White House is far from over. Even though deputy chief of staff Karl Rove was not tagged by Fitzgerald--which would have been an even bigger blow to the White House--the prosecutor held open the possibility of more indictments in the continuing investigation. And even if it stops with Libby, the ongoing legal proceedings could be an albatross around Bush's neck. For one thing, Cheney could find himself being dragged before the trial as a witness, along with several other senior officials.

Bungling and doubt. This is all happening to a White House whose stature is plummeting. It was only a year ago when, after winning a second term, Bush boasted, "I've earned capital in this election--and I'm going to spend it." Now, amid the lowest poll numbers of his presidency and rising doubts about his ability to lead the Iraq war effort, Bush is watching his ambitious second-term agenda being swept away by everything from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina and ballooning budget deficits to this latest indictment (a boost in third-quarter gross domestic product growth was a rare bright spot). "It's seldom in living memory that a presidency has such an array of things," said David Abshire, a former U.S. diplomat who served as a steadying force in the Reagan White House in the wake of the Iran-contra scandal. "When you put them all together, it's the perfect storm."

And it comes at a time when the Republican leadership is groaning under the weight of other ethics inquiries, including an indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on fundraising-related charges and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the financial dealings of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The combination is allowing Democrats to make charges like one from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last week that this is "another chapter in the Republicans' culture of corruption."
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