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List of federal political scandals in the United States

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This is a list of major political scandals of the United States.

Scope and organization of this article

Categorizing and listing scandals

The division of this article on American political scandals into three categories --- (1) federal; (2) state-and-local; and (3) sex ---- is somewhat arbitrary and sometimes overlapping. It seems possible that separate sub-categories could be developed, within the "federal" rubric, for example, for scandals that have emerged during the course of the confirmation hearing for a political or judicial appointee.

The arrangement of the list of federal-level scandals follows a more or less chronological order; in the case of state and local scandals, the arrangement is alphabetical, by state.

Political "scandal"

It is not always clear whether a particular flap involving a politician should count as a "scandal." For example, the alcohol-related driving problems that have plagued Senator Edward Kennedy probably never rose to the level of a "scandal," apart from the 1969 Chappaquiddick death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

The illegal mining of Nicaraguan harbors, and the Reagan administration's refusal to inform or consult the Senate about this, caused an enormous uproar in the Congress (including condemnations by Republican Senator Barry Goldwater), but its status as a "scandal" is debatable, even though, as a result of the U.S.-sponsored paramilitary actions in Central America, the United States in the case Nicaragua v. United States, ultimately became the only nation ever adjudged by the International Court of Justice to have been guilty of sponsoring terrorism. Scandalous though it no doubt was that United States intelligence agencies had been covertly and unlawfully engaged in terrorism, neither the World Court judgment nor the covert violent acts were treated in mainstream media exactly as a "scandal." On the other hand, the secret funding of the contras (of which the Nicaraguan harbor mining and other covert violence were part), in the context of secret negotiations with Iran concerning embassy hostages, was ultimately treated as a scandal and dubbed the Iran-contra scandal.

Andrew Johnson's unpopular approach to Reconstruction is perhaps seen as less a "scandal" than the circumstances that led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, even though Johnson, like Clinton, was impeached.

"Political" scandal

Some major news stories that surely count as "scandals" are nevertheless not usually considered "political" scandals. An obvious example would be the story concerning allegations that entertainer Michael Jackson (who is not a politician or a public official, although he is a public figure) engaged in improper relations with children. Even when public officials are involved, a scandal is not always considered "political" in nature. An example of this might be the Tailhook scandal, which was generally regarded as a military, rather than a political scandal. Likewise, the 2004 photographs of degradation and alleged torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were viewed by some to implicate highly placed Defense Department officials, but the events at Abu Ghraib were generally treated as a matter for military discipline rather than as a political scandal.

"Major" political scandal

There is no bright line to distinguish "major" scandals from "minor" scandals. The nature of the particular act of wrongdoing need not be great, but the consequences are probably significant. "Innocent" remarks by then U.S. Senate majority leader Trent Lott of Mississippi in appreciation of Strom Thurmond on the occasion of Senator Thurmond's 100th birthday ultimately brought to light Senator Lott's failure to support civil rights and caused a powerful political leader to step down.

This article includes a category of scandals on the "state and local" levels, which suggests that there may be a relative scale concerning the extent to which a scandal must be celebrated in order to be deemed "major."

At times, news coverage of a political scandal may itself be considered scandalous if it is deemed to violate journalistic standards, as happened in 2004 in connection with allegations that CBS News and Dan Rather were negligent or malicious in allowing fabricated "leaked" military records to be used in connection with a report of allegedly dishonorable conduct by President George W. Bush. Even though the records in question were only a tiny part of the evidence and were corroborated by other testimony and documents, the focus suddently shifted from alleged dereliction of duty on the part of Mr. Bush, to Dan Rather's irresponsible and improper authentication of a particular set of records.

Coverup

A frequent element of major political scandals is stonewalling, and often a cover-up is involved, which in some cases can even lead to formal criminal charges of obstruction of justice or perjury. In many cases, the "damage control" denials and other deception involved in efforts to "cover up" a scandal became themselves more scandalous, and more damaging to political careers, than the underlying problem. As embarrassing to the Nixon administration as the Watergate burglary was, what ultimately caused him to resign was the erosion of congressional support as it came to light that Nixon and his associates were concealing information and destroying evidence.

Campaign attacks distinguished

A distinction should perhaps be drawn, between allegations in negative campaign ads, and political scandals. It has become commonplace for the campaigns or the surrogates of political candidates to accuse opposing candidates of scandalously unworthy behavior. Although some of this mudslinging can on occasion lead to investigations that bear fruit as scandal, more often than not the purpose of such ads is simply to create a temporary negative association with a certain candidate, only long enough to influence an upcoming election. In the race for the 1988 Democratic nomination, campaign attacks were launched against various candidates, including allegations of plagiarism by Senator Joe Biden, allegations of attack videos secretly prepared by the campaign of Governor Michael Dukakis, etc., but few, if any, of these matters would probably be considered political scandals.

Systemic scandals

Not included in this article are pervasive systemic scandals, such as the role of money in the political process (except for cases of outright bribery). Some supporters of grass roots democracy have called the dominance of money in the political process the "great scandal" of modern democracy.

Federal-level Scandals

State and Local-Level Scandals

  • Connecticut Republican Governor John Rowland Bribery
  • District of Columbia Democratic Mayor Marion Barry caught on videotape using drugs in an FBI sting
  • Sharpstown scandal in Texas
  • Illinois Republican Governor George H. Ryan involved in sale of government licenses and contracts while he was Secretary of State
  • Operation Greylord in Illinois, involving influence peddling and bribery of Circuit Court judges (1980s)
  • Kentucky gubernatorial election war and assassination (turn of 20th century)
  • Louisiana Democratic Governor Earl Long committed to insane asylum while in office
  • Maryland State Senator Tommie Broadwater, Jr., convicted of food stamp fraud, 1983
  • Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel
  • Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew (see National Scandals, as his gubernatorial misconduct did not catch up to him until after he was Vice-President of the United States)
  • Maryland Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller telephoning Maryland Court of Appeals Judges ex parte, trying to lobby them not to overturn the unconstitutional redistricting plan he had championed (2002)
  • New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey sex and corruption scandal (2004)

Sex Scandals

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