A Scandal a Day Keeps Indictment Away

First there was Watergate, named after a hotel in Washington. Then "gate" was appended to the Iran arms for hostages to fund contras scandal (in which Reagan's White House breached the firewall that heretofore insulated the presidency from the Machiavellian fray of the soul-less CIA).

Now "gate" is tacked on to all kinds of scandals: Plamegate, for instance, and its current permutation, Scootergate. This last is courtesy of the prodigious Justin Raimondo. (Is he right? Is he left? Is he libertarian? Who cares? He makes sense -- and four times weekly.)

If the Bush administration's strategy has been to commit so many crimes the press and the public can't keep up, it's succeeded. Though, as Raimondo writes, "Scootergate" stands poised to rock its world. Meanwhile, here are other "gates" waiting to happen:

• Blackwatergate (no-bid contracts)
• Rose Gardengate (where Rove might have planned Plamegate)
• Blamegate (swings open to blame game)
• Armor-Plategate (Pentagon failure to reimburse families)

This final "gate" can't be laid at the feet of the administration, but I couldn't resist:

• Goldengate (infamous low fence encourages jumpers)


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