Sick of Bush

Cronyism in the Bush administration has recently been highlighted because of the unfortunate performance of campaign fundraiser and former Arabian Horse Association Director Mike Brown as hapless "Director" of FEMA during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. That whole set of circumstances led many otherwise complacent folk to reassess their opinion of Bush and his inner sanctum of compassionate conservative advisors, leading to a sharp decline in support for his policies with a majority of Americans disapproving of his performance in office.

Now a whole new drama is unfolding that seems destined to dramatically highlight the corruption and greed that underlies the Bush administration approach to virtually everything it does. On Monday, David Safavian, head of procurement for the OMB (Office of Management and Budget), was arrested on three felony counts stemming from an investigation into the business practices of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff:

According to court papers, Mr. Safavian, 38, is accused of lying about assistance that he gave Mr. Abramoff in his earlier work at the General Services Administration, where he was chief of staff from 2002 to 2004, and about an expensive golf trip he took with the lobbyist to Scotland in August 2002.

Mr. Abramoff, a former lobbying partner of Mr. Safavian, was indicted last month in Florida on unrelated federal fraud charges. He is not identified by name in the court papers involving Mr. Safavian's arrest. But "Lobbyist A" in an F.B.I. affidavit could only be Mr. Abramoff based on descriptive details in the documents filed in the Federal District Court here.

The Justice Department said Mr. Safavian had been specifically charged with making false statements to investigators about his efforts at the General Services Administration in 2002 to help Mr. Abramoff acquire two large pieces of government-owned property in the Washington area, including the historic Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mr. Safavian was in charge of a procurement budget of approximately 300 Billion dollars. He was already involved in decision making relating to the costly reconstructino of New Orleans. To make matters much worse, his wife has a questionable role in much of this. By way of Atrios:

Mr. Safavian's wife? Oh, that's Jennifer Safavian. Her job? Chief counsel on oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee.

Their latest job? Heading up the sham Katrina investigation...

Richard Nixon very famously declared "I am not a crook." It seems that before long, no one in the Bush administration will be able to make that claim without expecting gales of laughter.