In his book Worse than Watergate, John Dean enumerated 11 scandals that have occurred during the Bush administration.  Since the publication of the book, there have been two more.

Dean quotes the definition of scandal John B. Thompson's book Political Scandal:  Power and Visibility in the Media Age to confirm his own observations:

  • '"There must be "transgressions . . . sufficiently serious to elicit the disapproval of others" but falling short of 'heinous crimes.'"

  • "The misconduct must be concealed and then revealed [by the media]"

  • "The media must also express their disapproval of the misconduct' [with a disapproving reaction.]"

  • "Finally, those involved in the scandalous misconduct must realize that their actions becoming public could hurt their reputation  [or worse]". (Worse than Watergate, pp 188-89)

    I leave it to you to judge if those conditions have been met.  The key is the media reaction.

    Before the Iraq war started, I stated to my family and friends: "Unfortunately it is usually only the losers of a war who are charged with war crimes."  At the time I was referring to the act of starting the war.  Little did I realize that things would go beyond starting the war and continue with the occupation.

    The torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo have emerged as the 13th Scandal of the Bush administration.  There are many links that will bring you information about this.  Some of the most important are:

    The following link has to do with the 12th Scandal (Valerie Plame outing) but is interesting:

    To be continued. . .