Sherman Adams?” you say. In a couple of weeks, the name will be everywhere, folks.
Sherman Adams, a trusted and powerful top aide to President Eisenhower, left the White House only after a massive and long-running scandal about his misuse of power had deeply embarassed the administration.
The Sherman Adams story has everything. The Republican President widely perceived as a likeable guy, too much in the sway of an aide. The right-hand-man who abused enormous power–not for personal gain, he always maintained, but to help a personal friend. The slow public road of revelation, with President and his party taking enormous damage because the President couldn’t bring himself to ask his old friend to resign. The final, humiliating, much too late departure.
As everyone scrambles to get the names of the Wilsongate leakers–is anybody watching the magician’s other hand? Somehow, the other Bush-crony scandal has disappeared from the headlines.
You remember, the story about
contracts to rebuild Iraq, and the way Bush cronies are openly peddling their influence to US companies greedy for a piece of that multi-billion dollar pie.
Insisting that he was not peddling influence, Adams conceded “mistakes of judgment and not of intent” – a point that President Eisenhower emphasized. Ike conceded that his right-hand man had lacked “careful prudence” in “this incident” but added that Adams was “an invaluable public servant doing a difficult job efficiently, honestly and tirelessly.” Ike concluded with pungent but perhaps ill-worded plea: “I need him.”
“For critics of the staff system and for those who liked to picture the president as a boob being led by the rock from the Granite State,” Herbert Parmet has written, “Eisenhower’s three sincere words became the ultimate confirmation of their suspicions.”
“Friendship with shady player brings downfall,” 1999 story in Concord (NH) Monitor
5 responses so far ↓
1 Gary Farber // Oct 3, 2003 at 2:49 pm
Forgive me if I suggest that a Sherman Adams/Karl Rove comparison is pretty slight. All they have in common is being important top aides to Republican Presidents. There is no and never has been that Adams was in any way remotely as malicious, politically controlling, devious, or unscrupulous, as Karl Rove. Nor did he fall because he was illegally screwing with the President’s political enemies, but instead because of simple carelessness about corruption.
On another question: “…is anybody watching the magician’s other hand?”
Well, yeah, I think I’ve blogged a fair amount about it. Um, haven’t I?
2 Betsy Devine // Oct 4, 2003 at 3:38 am
Gary, I’m honored to see you here arguing with me. I think the Adams-Rove comparison is useful. Both men rose to huge power in the shadow of a President pledged to avoid their predecessor’s scandals. Both thought of themselves as intellectual and moral giants compared to others around them–and hubris blinded them both to the way their actions would look out in the light of day. Looking into my crystal ball: both fell irresistibly once they started to topple, thanks to a million pinpricks from their own side, administered by people who were tired of being afraid of the man at the top.
3 Betsy Devine // Oct 4, 2003 at 4:19 am
Oh yeah, the magician’s other hand. How many media stories have you seen since 9/30 that talked about influence peddling, Allbaugh, etc.? How many media stories have you seen since then about the Plame affair, Wilsongate, or whatever you want to call it? Same with the blogs…The influence-peddling story needs follow-up too. I haven’t heard anybody ask for a special prosecutor to look into the contracts awarded without bids to Bechtel and Halliburton….
4 Gary Farber // Oct 4, 2003 at 9:05 pm
“How many media stories have you seen since 9/30 that talked about influence peddling, Allbaugh, etc.?”
Er, a lot. Maybe you’ve been understandably busy at Bloggercon? I’ve posted yet other subsequent links, though not hunting for them.
“How many media stories have you seen since then about the Plame affair, Wilsongate, or whatever you want to call it?”
You’ve *got* to be kidding! It’s been *the* most major story on every major news publication on the planet, with each one posting multiple stories on each facet every day!
On your last point, I hope there will be, which is why I’m blogging on it.
5 Betsy Devine // Oct 5, 2003 at 5:18 am
Gary, I’m glad you’re on this. My point, which I guess was unclear, was that while the Plame affair got lots of coverage, lots and lots and lots of attention, the media would be distracted from the less sexy story of war profiteering.