Quotes of the Morning: Scandal du Jour

“President Bush announced Tuesday that he has chosen an executive for a defense contractor to be secretary of the Navy and a Pentagon weapons buyer to be secretary of the Air Force.
Michael W. Wynne , Bush's pick for Air Force secretary, has been the Defense Department's undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics since 2003. He will replace James Roche, who resigned in January.
[…]
In June, the Pentagon's inspector general said Wynne was one of a half-dozen top Pentagon and Air Force officials responsible for a failed $23.5 billion deal to lease and buy refueling tankers from The Boeing Co. Lawmakers called the deal the most significant defense contract abuse in decades, although the inspector general did not accuse the officials of illegal activity.
The deal led to the conviction of former Air Force executive Darleen Druyun on charges of conspiring to violate conflict-of-interest rules. She admitted in court that she favored Boeing because the company gave jobs to her daughter and son-in-law.”
-Associated Press, August 16, 2005

“There is no failure so great that you cannot be promoted by this administration. Meanwhile, business as usual at the state level.”
-Skippy

“Taft, a Republican who pleaded no contest Thursday to misdemeanor ethics violations for failing to report golf outings and other gifts, has vowed to serve out the remaining 16 months of his second term. He cannot, by law, run for re-election.
Democrats are studying whether to pursue Taft's impeachment, a daunting task to get through the GOP-run state legislature.”
-CNN, August 22, 2005

“Taft, a great-grandson of President William Howard Taft, nodded as the charges were read.He has forced out underlings for ethics offenses, but he said those cases were different.”
-Associated Press, August 19, 2005

“Of course they were different. They weren’t him, and we all know that the buck stops somewhere shy of the top seat. Still, it looks like political trouble for Taft, and we know what you do when in political trouble.. That’s right, kiss the a** of the religious far right.”
-Skippy

“Governor Taft says he supports the introduction of analytical criticism of evolution in classrooms.
Taft, a Republican, says he can’t say whether the concept of intelligent design is science.
But Taft says current state policy is an appropriate compromise between groups with competing ideas about teaching evolution.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is so complex that it was designed by a non-specified power.
Taft says evolution should be taught in public schools but there should also be room for analytical review of that.”
-Associated Press, August 16, 2005