Stephen Payne (June 2008)
The Homeland Security adviser and high-profile Bush "Pioneer" was exposed in a bribery scheme this week.  Payne was caught on tape asking for six-figure donations to the Bush Library in exchange for access to the President and his team. While he said his deal-making could be "perceived to be bribery," DHS and a House committee seemed to agree and are looking into the matter.  The episode, the Angel sighs, promises to be just another major Payne for the Bush legacy.

Troy King (June 2008)
The Alabama attorney general and chair of the McCain campaign there received his comeuppance, so to speak. The anti-gay crusader and family values paragon King was caught with another man  engaged in acts not conducive to procreation.  While King refuses to resign, he has been erased from the McCain web site.  A fitting end, the Angel laughs, for a man who proclaimed, "Alabama is a state where actions definitely speak louder than words".

Vito Fossella (June 2008)
The end came quickly for the Staten Island "family values" Republican.  In a political implosion of biblical proportions, Fossella decided against reelection after he was arrested on DWI charges while driving to the home of his mistress - and illegitimate daughter. Making matters worse for the GOP, Fossella's likely November stand-in, Frank Powers, died suddenly of a heart attack.  At least, the Angel sighs, Elliot Spitzer will have some company in the New York hall of shame.

Lurita Doan (April 2008)
The end is finally nigh for Doan, President Bush's reliable GOP operative at the GSA.  For months, Doan has faced a House probe over her dubious awarding of no-bid contracts to friends as well as possible Hatch Act violations for wrongly using her office to help "our candidates" in upcoming elections. Doan finally resigned on April 29th.  History's verdict on Doan as well as the "great president" she claimed to serve, the Angel notes, won't be kind.

Robert Coughlin (April 2008)
The former deputy chief of staff at the DOJ's criminal division is just the latest Banana Republican undone by the Jack Abramoff affair.  Coughlin pleaded guilty to accepting thousands of dollars in meals and sports tickets from Abramoff's old firm, Greenberg Traurig. Between 2001 and 2003, Coughlin in a particularly egregious conflict of interest used his office to aide both Abramoff and his old pal Kevin Ring in defrauding their Indian tribe clients. Years after his own indictment, the Angel notes, Jack Abramoff is still the gift that keeps on giving.

Alphonso Jackson (March 2008)
Bush's embattled HUD Secretary finally stepped down after years of service as a national disgrace.  Already in hot water for past admissions that political loyalty was an essential (and, of course, illegal) litmus test in how he awarded federal contracts, Jackson faced new charges of cronyism in public housing deals in Philadelphia. While his photo gallery at HUD has been removed, the Angel reminds us, the American people will always have this image of George W. Bush and Alphonso Jackson.

Richard Renzi (February 2008)
The hammer finally came down on the Arizona Congressman, prosecutors purge villain and co-chair of John McCain's campaign in the state.  Renzi faces a 35 count indictment on charges involving the use of his office in a crooked land deal that netted him over $700,000.  Renzi's woes topped a banner week for GOP corruption that saw Duke Cunningham bagman Brent Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years even as convicted Abramoff figure Bob Ney was moved to a halfway house. As for John McCain, the Angel notes, he is left to wonder about Renzi's children - all 12 of them.

Tommy Franks (February 2008)
The Iraq war commander and Bush Medal of Freedom recipient found himself in hot water for his role in assisting dubious military charities.  Franks pocketed $100,000 from a group which used his image in fundraising appeals.  Unfortunately, much of the money produced went not to hospitalized Iraq and Afghanistan vets, but instead paid the personal expenses of its management.  After George W. Bush at the 2004 GOP convention, the Angel notes, this is the worst endorsement Tommy Franks ever made.

Ron Paul (December 2007)
The Texas Congressman confirmed again this week that he is the second craziest candidate in the GOP presidential field.  While unable to match Mike Huckabee for pure extremism, Paul's own closet full of skeleton includes a racist screed from 1992.  Claiming that "95% of the black males" in Washington DC are criminals, Paul concluded "it is hardly irrational" to be afraid of black men.  Paul is apparently so bizarre, the Angel muses, that even Fox News is planning to keep him out its January 2008 presidential debate.

Nancy Nord (November 2007)
The head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission has some 'splaining to do.  First Nord demanded that Congress not increase the staffing and budget for her woefully under-funded agency in the face of massive Chinese product recalls.  Just days later, the Washington Post revealed that she and her predecessor Hal Stratton received up to 30 paid trips from companies they were supposedly regulating. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for her resignation, the Angel muses, perhaps Nord should be demoted to food taste tester - in Beijing.

Mitch McConnell (October 2007)
The Senate Minority Leader once again showed himself to be a bald-faced liar this week.  Just days denying his staffer Don Stewart was behind the right-wing smear campaign against 12-year old S-CHIP recipient Graeme Frost, McConnell saw the role of his office in the GOP's slander detailed by the Kentucky media. It was McConnell who insisted on sworn testimony from Clinton aides in 1996, though not Bush staffers in 2007.  Maybe now, the Angel notes, he, might be willing take an oath to tell the truth himself.

Rudy Giuliani (October 2007)
The 2008 GOP front-runner got a double-dose of bad news this week. First came word that his close friend and former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik will likely face federal charges including bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice.  Just days later we learned Mayor Giuliani gave Motorola a no-bid contract for radios that completely failed the NY Fire Department on 9/11. Perhaps Rudy's wife will call, the Angel shrugs, with some explanations.

John McCain (September 2007)
The desperate GOP White House hopeful reached a new low this week. Ignoring de facto precedent to avoid partisan politics on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, McCain launched his "No Surrender" campaign swing.  Hoping to equate his own quixotic presidential run with his steadfastness on Iraq, an unapologetic McCain  claimed "if we leave Iraq, then it [9/11] will be repeated." Sadly for McCain, the Angel notes, Guiliani has him beat for fear-mongering.

Fred Thompson (June 2007)
The Law and Order star and the leading 2008 GOP non-candidate has had a very bad week indeed.  Just days after his starring role as a Scooter Libby apologist and Nixon mole pleased the right, it was revealed that the one-time lobbyist worked for pro-choice and criminal rights clients. Now, conflicts between Thompson staffers and his trophy wife have campaign aides - and contributors - jumping ship. With Fred yet to formally enter the race, the Angel muses, we may be witnessing the first premature withdrawal of election '08.

Rudy Giuliani (June 2007)
An Avenging Angel pick for the second time in a month, the former New York mayor has had a very bad week.  Last week, Rudy's South Carolina campaign chairman Thomas Ravenel was busted for intent to distribute cocaine.  His Palmetto State team acted quickly, replacing Ravenel with his racist father Arthur, who famously called the NAACP the "National Association for Retarded People."  And the day after Salon profiled Giuliani business partner and accused pedophile Monsignor Alan Placa, former EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman drew Rudy into the quagmire over the Ground Zero environmental disaster. And then there was the story about the self-proclaimed 9/11 hero blowing off the Iraq Study Group. In comparison, the Angel laughs, getting caught in drag would be a welcome relief for Giuliani.

Mitt Romney (June 2007)
The man pretending to be a conservative during his White House bid joined Rudy Giuliani in having a tough week.  First, long-time Romney aide Jay Garrity left the campaign after revelations he repeatedly pretended to be  Secret Service agent and state trooper.  Then, Romney pledge to "double" Gitmo  was put at risk by rumors the Bush White House would shutter the facility.  And just days later, the Boston Globe detailed how Mitt got a Vietnam deferment in order to serve his Mormon mission in France.  While Romney took his lumps this week, the Angel notes, his hair remains perfect.

Lurita Doan (June 2007)
The GSA administrator was formally revealed as GOP political appendage in a report this week.  A U.S. Office of Special Counsel report concluded that Doan violated the Hatch Act in hosting meetings with Team Rove to "help our candidates." The report was sent to the White House with the obvious recommendation that Doan be dismissed.  President Bush, the Angel concludes, will get on that juust after he sacks Alberto Gonzales.

Ted Stevens (June 2007)
The Alaska Senator who famously described the Internet as a "bunch of tubes" may see his career down the drain.  While his state senator son is caught up in the Veco bribery case, Stevens has been linked to his son's bogus consulting fees from fishery firms and real estate companies. It's no wonder, the Angel nods,  the good people of Alaska decided not to erect a 9 foot state of their senior Senator.

Dr. James Holsinger (June 2007)
President Bush's nominee as surgeon general hopes to make homophobia national policy.  Holsinger founded a church which "ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian". And in 1991, Holsinger authored a paper citing the dangers of "anal eroticism."  Taking a page from Alaska Senator Ted Stevens book on the Internet, he also used plumbing analogies of pipes and tubes to describe human sexuality.  Holsinger, the Angel fumes, is the worst high-profile Republican physician since Schiavo video-diagnostician Bill Frist.

Rudy Giuliani (May 2007)
The former New York mayor now rivals Mitt Romney as the leading abortion flip-flopper in the 2008 GOP field.  Just days after declaring "it would be OK" if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Apparently, Giuliani has decided to tell the truth and tell Republican primary voters he supports abortion rights. Since Giuliani, like Mitt Romney's wife, gave money to Planned Parenthood, it's the least he could do.  The question now, the Angel ponders, is whether Giuliani just prematurely terminated his hopes for the GOP nomination.

Randall Tobias (May 2007)
The head of US AID resigned after revelations he was a regular client of the DC Madam.  The abstinence advocate apparently was having "gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." President Bush has proposed replacing his face to the developing world with a woman who called Hispanics "lazy" and described African-Americans as preferring selling drugs to work.  As for Tobias, the Angel grins, there will be no happy ending.

Julie MacDonald (May 2007)
The deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Bush Interior Department preemptively resigned just days before a Capitol Hill hearing.  Already under investigation by the department's Inspector General, MacDonald mocked her employees and pressured staff to change scientific findings about threatened wildlife.  Perhaps the yellow-bellied GOP hack, the Angel muses, will soon join the list of endangered species.

Pete Domenici (April 2007)
The Senator known as "el jefe" in his home state of New Mexico is now in deep caca over his role in the U.S. attorney firings.  Domenici lawyered up in the wake of revelations that he pressed sack U.S. attorney David Iglesias over possible indictments of NM Democrats. Now the AP is reporting the once-invincible Domenici may retire in 2008.  As Iglesias might have said, the Angel grins, Domenici "can't handle the truth."

Paul Wolfowitz (April 2007)
Rumseld right-hand man and Iraq war architect at the Pentagon now finds himself in serious trouble over at the World Bank.  With his dictatorial style and allegations he arranged an unprecedented  promotion and raise for his colleague-girlfriend, Wolfowitz now faces calls for his resignation.  And here he thought, the Angel snickers, that holes in his socks were his biggest problem.

Tom Delay (April 2007)
The disgraced former House Majority Leader is back with a vengeance and a new book.  After attacking his own one-time Texas GOP colleague Dick Armey as "drunk with ambition," the former exterminator deployed the language of the Nazi final solution against the Democrats.  After comparing liberals to Hitler, he compared his own indictment back in Texas with the persecution and deaths of 6,000,000 Jews in the Holocaust. The only analogy we hear from the Hammer more often, the Angel groans, is the self-proclaimed comparison of Tom Delay and Jesus Christ.

David Stockman (April 2007)
The wrong-doings of former Reagan OMB head and supply-side junky finally caught with David Stockman.  As William Grieder famously documented, the arrogant "tax cut and spend" Stockman was the architect of the massive Republican budget deficits we've learned to know and hate.  Stockman's comeuppance finally came, with his indictment last month on charges of defrauding investors and banks.  Some times, a satisfied Angel laughs, the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Rudy Giuliani (April 2007)
September 2001 may have catapulted New York's mayor to national prominence, but April 2007 may keep him from the White House.  His protege Bernard Kerik continues to be albatross, with revelations that Giuliani knew early on of his ties to mob-related firms yet continued to push President for Kerik to head Homeland Security.  Days later, we learned that Rudy is his third wife's third husband.  And in recent days, American discovered that America's Mayor doesn't know much about nuclear proliferation, the Confederate flag or the price of milk.  For Rudy, the Angel laughs, the GOP primaries really will be a drag.

Bernard Kerik (April 2007)
President Bush's aborted Homeland Security pick in even more hot water and might yet take Rudy Giuliani and Alberto Gonzales down with him.  In March, Kerik rejected a plea deal involving charges of alleged tax fraud, conspiracy to eavesdrop and mortgage fraud.  Just two weeks later, new revelations showed that Giuliani and Gonzales continued to support Kerik to run DHS even after the White House learned of his ties to mob-related firms. His legal woes appear to be hurting his consulting business.  Like Oliver North, Gordon Liddy and other GOP felons past, the Angel ponders, Kerik can still count on a home at Fox News.

Jim Gibbons (April 2007)
Already in an ethical hole, the Republican Governor of Nevada just keeps digging.  Only weeks after surviving a scandal surrounding a rumored sexual assault, Gibbons and his wife are being investigated for possible bribes involving not one but two defense contractors.  Email records include such money lines as "please don't forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn." Gibbons responded by claiming that "I have heard that the Democrats have paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written." What happens in Vegas, the Angel muses, doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas.

John McCain (April 2007)
Mr. Straight Talk took his flagging presidential campaign to Iraq as a part of PR surge to deflect his latest gaffe.  On March 26, McCain touted areas of the capital "where you and I could walk."  To prove his point, the Arizona Senator toured a Baghdad market - donning a flak jacket and accompanied by 100 U.S. troops and several helicopter gunships.  It's no wonder, the Angel laughs, that NBC's Tom Aspell claimed that with similar protection, "even Paris Hilton could ride a bicycle in a bikini through Anbar province."

Newt Gingrich (March 2007)
The former House Speaker committed a trifecta of offenses in the run-up to a possible White House race.  First, Newt called Hillary Clinton, his one-time partner of health care records reform, a "nasty woman" and "endlessly ruthless."  Then at the CPAC conference, Gingrich described New Orleans residents as "so uneducated and so unprepared" they could not avoid Hurricane Katrina.  It's no wonder, the Angel laughs, that the thrice-married Newt told Focus on the Family's James Dobson that he had "gotten on my knees and sought God’s forgiveness."

Doug Feith (February 2007)
The former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy was savaged this week for his political manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq.  A report by the Penatgon inspector general found that Feith's "inappropriate" briefings to White House decision makers failed to note the strong disagreement of the CIA over the nonexistent Saddam-Al Qaeda link, among other issues.  An angry Feith took the pages of the Washington Post to defend his bad name.  It's no wonder, the Angel notes, that Colin Powell aide Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said of Feith "seldom in my life have I met a dumber man" and fellow Iraq architect Tommy Franks deemed him simply "the f**king stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

Tommy Franks (February 2007)
The staggering incompetence of the former CentComm commander and Republican wannabe was revealed in newly declassified documents this week.  The materials showed a wildly optimistic Centcomm war plan that predicted 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of 2006. It's no wonder Franks was at the center of Thomas Rick's defining book on Iraq, Fiasco.

Frank Gaffney (February 2007)
The neo-con columnist and security hardliner was smited this week for misappropriating Abraham Lincoln in defense of George W. Bush.  In a bizarre column attacking congressional foes of Bush's surge in Iraq, Gaffney claimed to quote an admonition from Lincoln that such opponents "are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged."  As it turns out, the words were not Lincoln's, but belonged to J. Michael Waller, who penned them in 2003 for another Moonie rag, Insight.  On this as in everything else about Iraq, the Angel sighs, Gaffney had it wrong.

J. Steven Griles (February 2007)
The former Interior Department deputy secretary found himself in a deeper hole this week.  Already under investigation over allegations he assisted Jack Abramoff in milking tribal casino clients, Griles was revealed to have jointly purchased a home with his girlfriend (a former Justice Department official) with an oil industry lobbyist.  Republican politics, the Angel grins, makes strange bedfellows indeed.

Darrell Issa (February 2007)
The California Republican reached a new low last week during committee hearings discussing the role of Iraq contractor Blackwater.  After the widows of the four contractors slaughtered in Fallujah read their prepared statement, Issa asked "who wrote it?" Just another sad chapter, the Angel notes, for the man who cried like a baby in 2003 when he realized that Arnold would be the next governor of California.

Condoleezza Rice (February 2007)
The Secretary of State this week once again did what she does best - playing dumb.  As the war of words over Iranian involvement in Iraq heated up, Condi denied revelations that she received a 2003 peace proposal from the Tehran regime.  Despite evidence from Richard Armitage and Flynt Leverett that the White House rejected the Iranian offer, Rice claims she does not recall ever seeing it. I believe, the Angel laughs, it was called, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo (February 2007)
Porter Goss' one-time #3 man at the CIA was indicted this week on corruption charges involving his close friend and Duke Cunningham bag man Brent Wilkes. The 11 counts against Foggo and Wilkes that include conspiracy, wire fraud, conflict of interest and money laundering.  This latest black eye for the CIA and its GOP allies in the House includes lurid tales of bribes, payoffs and prostitutes.  It's no wonder, the Angel muses, Porter Goss decided to hear for the hills.

Pat Robertson (February 2007)
The American Taliban stalwart is back in the news for making another death threat.  Back in August 2005, Robertson famously called for the U.S. to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.  Now, facing a lawsuit copyright lawsuit, Robertson threatened bodybuilder Philip Busch, saying "I am going to kill you and your family." Robertson's God, the Angel ponders, works in mysterious ways.

Charles Stimson (February 2007)
The Deputy Secretary of Defense paid the price for supporting President Bush's politics of payback.  In an interview with Federal News Radio, Stimson threatened law firms representing Gitmo detainees such as Hamdan, warning that corporate CEO's will force them to "choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists." Despite