Thirteen Cracks by Allan Lichtman

Author:Allan Lichtman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2021-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

• 8 •

Political Cleansing

Stopping Favoritism, Cronyism, and Nepotism

I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals.

—Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, 2015

In 1920, Republican Senator Warren Harding of Ohio, an improbable candidate, best known for womanizing and poker playing, won the presidency in the greatest landslide by a challenging candidate in U.S. history. Harding made some outstanding appointments such as Charles Evans Hughes as Secretary of State and Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce. But his tenure, which fell into scandal and disgrace, illustrates the dangers of appointing cronies, friends, and political allies.

Harding named his friend, Republican Senator Albert Fall of New Mexico, as Interior Secretary. He disregarded conservationists who opposed Fall’s philosophy of uncontrolled capitalism. Harding appointed his campaign manager and confidant, Harry Daugherty, as Attorney General. He dismissed the concerns of Republican Senators about Daugherty’s character. “I have told [Daugherty] that he can have any place in my Cabinet he wants, outside of Secretary of State,” Harding said. “He tells me that he wants to be Attorney General, and by God, he will be Attorney General!” Harding made his friend and political ally Charles Forbes head of the Veterans Bureau. He put in Albert D. Lasker, a donor and 1920 campaign official as Chair of the United States Shipping Board, and another crony, Thomas W. Miller, as Alien Property Custodian. His office controlled “all money and property in the United States due or belonging to an enemy, or ally of an enemy.”

Private oilmen bribed Fall for access to petroleum held in government reserves at Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Fall became the first American cabinet member to serve a prison term for official corruption, and commentators dubbed the Harding scandals “Teapot Dome.” Federal prosecutors charged Daugherty with bribery in the sale of assets confiscated during the First World War. He twice escaped conviction through hung juries. Only one juror held out for acquittal in the second trial. A public outcry eventually forced President Harding to dismiss Daugherty. Forbes served a year and eight months in prison for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government. Congressional critics accused Lasker of “throwing our ships away” by selling surplus vessels at the bargain-basement price of $30 per ton, but prosecutors did not charge him with a crime. Miller spent eighteen months in prison for plotting to defraud the government.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision following these scandals authorized Congress to investigate violations of the law by subpoena. In 1924, Congress authorized certain congressional committees with jurisdiction over federal taxes to acquire information on federal tax returns. This is the law that gave rise to extended litigation when President Trump’s appointees resisted a subpoena from the House Ways and Means committee for his tax returns.

Trump, like Harding, appointed government officials based on their personal loyalty and political ties, not on their competence or honesty. Unlike Harding, though, Trump dealt vindictively with allegedly disloyal appointees, including National Security Council staff member Alexander Vindman and Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.