In the Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton-eras, one reason administration scandals gained traction was that the non-presidential party controlled Congress and so could launch and tailor investigations. This also left an opening for people in the Washington bureaucracy to come forward and speak their minds with some sense of protection. The fact that the White House and Congress have since 2000 been led by the same party -- a party intent on imposing a kind of party-line discipline seldom seen before in Washington -- has retarded this scandal-season.

Despite all his initial caveats and seeming attempts to shield the administration from responsibility for the missing WMD in Iraq, the improbable David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group, in his statements in Congress seemed to single-handedly turn the tide of American public opinion and now, bafflingly, he simply won't shut up.

"The White House said yesterday that President Bush plans to meet only with a limited number of representatives from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite a statement issued Friday that suggested he would meet with the whole panel."

"Cheney was hired by Halliburton in 1995, not long after he went on a fly-fishing trip in New Brunswick, Canada, with several corporate moguls. After Cheney had said good night, the others began talking about Halliburton's need for a new C.E.O. Why not Dick? He had virtually no business experience, but he had valuable relationships with very powerful people. Lawrence Eagleburger, the Secretary of State in the first Bush Administration, became a Halliburton board member after Cheney joined the company. He told me that Cheney was the firm's 'outside man,' the person who could best help the company expand its business around the globe… Under Cheney's direction, Halliburton thrived. In 1998, the company acquired its main rival, Dresser Industries. Cheney negotiated the $7.7-billion deal, reportedly during a weekend of quail-hunting."

Lieutenant Bush must have been present in Alabama because so far no one has proved that he was absent. Perhaps Hans Blix can shed some light here."

"The traffic violations are significant in the context of Bush's military career. At the time Bush enlisted in the Texas National Guard, the Air Force typically would have had to issue a waiver for an applicant who had multiple arrests or driving violations. An officer who served at the same time as the president, former Texas Air National Guard pilot Dean Roome, was required by the Air Force to get a waiver for a $25 speeding ticket when he enlisted in the Air National Guard in 1967. There is no record of an enlistment waiver in Bush's military file."

"So this is what we're supposed to swallow: A close friend of the Bush family took it upon himself to get G.W. Bush a billet in the Air National Guard. A Democratic House Speaker who had nothing to gain from helping a two-term Republican from Houston did so because it was the right thing to do - while he was, in the Wild West of campaign finance, raising money to run for statewide office. And the younger Bush, after scoring the absolute minimum on his flight test, was moved to the top of the recruiter's list by Guard officers who recognized his potential as a flyer. If you buy that, then you'll buy my Enron stock."

"After reading President Bush's description of the American economy of the past ('It used to be, you know, crank somebody out of high school, and if they could run a backhoe, that's going to be fine') and considering former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's comments about the president's lack of interest in a 2001 economy briefing, I realize that a new investigation should be added alongside the search for missing National Guard records: did George W. Bush attend any classes at Harvard Business School?"