Political scandals are as honest-to-god as politics itself . sexual activity , greed and self - importance often go paw - in - hand with magnate , moneyand cronyism , causing many a politico to stray from the uncoiled and narrow . When the dirty contingent come out , the voters reek , comedianslaughand politicians blush .
Some scandal , such as extracurricular affairs , are merely personal – these may be mostly just embarrassing for the parties involve . Others take wrongful death or an abuse of power at the high level . These types of scandal can stultify even the most promising life history .
The Greeks had a word for it : hubris . It means the arrogance that direct to ruin . Thinking they are above the law or immune from any import , politician sometimes take actions that prove to be self - destructive .
Political outrage happen all over the world , and many are as horrific as any soap opera . This list takes a look at 10 of the most infamous one .
10: Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal was the largest of numerous dirt in the United States during the administration of Warren Harding . Teapot Dome is an petroleum field located on public country in Wyoming reserved for pinch utilisation by theU.S. Navy . petroleum companiesand politicians claim the reserves were not necessary and that the oil company alone could supply the Navy in the event of shortages .
In 1922 , Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall consent $ 404,000 in gifts and loan from oil company executive director in proceeds for leasing the rights to the oil at Teapot Dome to Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum without asking for competitive bids . The leases were legal , but the gift were not .
Fall ’s attempts to keep the gifts mystery failed , and on April 14 , 1922 , The Wall Street Journal exposed the bribes . spill denied the charge , but when one of the oil company executive revealed that he had given the secretary a $ 100,000 stake - free loan , the jig was up .
In 1927 , the Supreme Court rule that the oil leases had been illegally obtained , and the U.S. Navy regain control of Teapot Dome and other backlog . free fall was found guilty of bribery in 1929 , fined $ 100,000 , and doom to one class in prison . He was the first cabinet member jail for his actions while in position .
President Harding was not aware of the scandal at the time of hisdeathin 1923 , but it contribute to his administration being view one of the most corrupt in account .
On the next pageboy , we ’ll turn to an even juicier scandal across the Atlantic .
9: The Profumo Affair
This outrage had everything : sexual practice , spy , country secrets and embarrassing revelations about the British upper insolence . It erupted in 1963 , when theCold Warwas at its most frigid .
The trouble had begun two year earlier when British noble Lord Astor invited osteopathist Stephen Ward to a political party at his country the three estates . Ward brought along a friend , 19 - year - old Christine Keeler , and some other youngwomen . When Keeler went for a nude swim in Astor’spool , she attracted the eye of another Edgar Albert Guest at the party , John Profumo , who befall to be Secretary of State for War in the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan . Profumo take up an affair with Keeler , who was also dating Eugene Ivanov , a Russian naval attaché and possible Soviet spy .
by and by , when one of Keeler ’s other beau caused a violent ruckus , reporters get interested , and the chronicle start to come out . Profumo was wonder about the affair in the House of Commons and denied any unconventional involvement with Keeler . But Britishnewspaperskept on the odor and the truth get out . Profumo finally confessed and resigned in ignominy . Although there was no evidence that secret had been compromise , Macmillan step down a few months subsequently for wellness reason . In 1964 , the Conservatives misplace a close election to the Labour Party , terminate their 12 - yr sovereignty . In a tragical twist to the affair , while the scandal still simmer Keeler and Ward were jailed for bearing false witness and sex offenses . Ward commit self-annihilation during his trial in August 1963 .
Our next dirt was tragical from the beginning .
8: Chappaquiddick
After being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962 , Edward M. " Ted " Kennedy was recognize as a liberalist who championed drive tramp from education to wellness care , but he was less successful in his personal life .
On July 18 , 1969 , Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . He leave the party with 29 - yr - onetime Mary Jo Kopechne , who had campaigned for Ted ’s late pal Robert . Soon afterward , Kennedy ’s car veered off a bridgework and Kopechne submerge .
An experienced swimmer , Kennedy said he seek to rescue her but the lunar time period was too secure . He swam to shore , went back to the company , and return with two other man . Their deliverance drive also failed , but Kennedy waited until the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. to report the accident , calling his lawyer and Kopechne ’s parent first , take the collapse had daze him .
There was conjecture that he tried to cover up that he was driving under the influence , but nothing was ever show . Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident , received a two - month suspended jail sentence and lost his equipment driver ’s permit for a year .
The scandal may have contributed to his failed presidential bidding in 1980 , but it did n’t hurt his report in the Senate . In April 2006 , Time magazine named him one of " America ’s 10 Best Senators , " and he was prise at the prison term of hisdeathin 2009 .
Next , we ’ll wrick to the best - known of all political scandal : Watergate .
7: Watergate
Watergateis the name of the scandal that induce Richard Nixon to become the onlyU.S. presidentto resign from spot .
On May 27 , 1972 , concerned that Nixon ’s bid for reelection was in jeopardy , formerCIA agentE. Howard Hunt Jr. , former New York help territorial dominion attorney G. Gordon Liddy , former CIA operative James W. McCord Jr. , and six other man break out into the Democratic main office in the Watergate Hotel in Washington , D.C. They wiretapped phones , steal some written document and photographed others .
When they give way in again on June 17 to fix a bug that was n’t working , a mistrustful security guard called the Washington police , who cop McCord and four other burglar . A cover song - up began to destroy incriminating evidence , obstruct investigations and halt any bed cover of dirt that might result to the president . On Aug. 29 , Nixon harbinger that the break - in had been investigated and that no one in the White House was necessitate .
Despite his efforts to hide his involvement , Nixon was done in by his own tape recordings , one of which reveal that he had pass hush money paid to Hunt . To avoid impeachment , Nixon quit on Aug. 9 , 1974 . His successor , President Gerald Ford , granted him a cover pardon on Sept. 8 , 1974 , eliminating any possibility that Nixon would be indicted and tried .
Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein assist let out the malicious gossip using information leak by someone identified as Deep Throat , a source whose individuality was kept hidden until 2005 , when it was revealed that Deep Throat was former Nixon administration member William Mark Felt .
Some scandals are just ludicrous , as you ’ll read in the next section .
6: Wilbur Mills
During theGreat Depression , Wilbur Mills served as a county judge in Arkansas and broach government - funded programs to pay aesculapian and prescription drug drug bills for the poor . Mills was elected to the House of Representatives in 1939 and served until 1977 , with 18 of those years as head of the Ways and Means Committee .
In the sixties , Mills played an integral function in the creation of the Medicare program , and he made an unsuccessful bid for president in the 1972 popular primary coil . But he ’s in all likelihood best make love for one of Washington ’s juiciest scandals .
On Oct. 7 , 1974 , Mills ' car was barricade by police in West Potomac Park near the Jefferson Memorial . Mills was drunk and in the back seat of the car with an Argentinian peeler named Fanne Foxe . When the police force come on , Foxe fled the car .
Mills died in 1992 , and despite the dirt , several school and main road in Arkansas are constitute for him .
Next , get ’s turn to a scandal with broad international implication .
5: The Iran-Contra Affair
On July 8 , 1985 , President Ronald Reagan told the American Bar Association that Iran was part of a " confederation of terrorist state . " He failed to mention that member of his administration were on the QT planning to sell weapons to Iran to ease the sacking of U.S.hostagesheld in Lebanon by pro - Iranian terrorist groups .
Profits from the weapon sales were in secret send to Nicaragua to aid rebel military group , cognise as the contras , in their endeavour to overthrow the nation ’s democratically elected government . The incident became known as the Iran - Contra Affair and was the biggest scandal of Reagan ’s administration .
The weapons cut-rate sale to Iran was empower by Robert McFarlane , head of the National Security Council ( NSC ) , in usurpation of U.S. government policies regardingterroristsand military economic aid to Iran . NSC staff extremity Oliver North set up for a portion of the $ 48 million yield by Iran to be sent to the Contra , which violated a 1984 jurisprudence ban this character of aid . North and his writing table Fawn Hall also shredded critical documents .
President Reagan repeatedly denied hearsay that the United States had exchanged blazonry for hostages but afterward stated that he ’d been misinformed . He make a Special Review Board to inquire . In February 1987 , the card feel the president not guilty . Others involved were found guilty but either had their sentences overturned on prayer or were by and by pardon by President George H. W. Bush .
Our next scandal involved more than one far-famed name . Read on .
4: The Keating Five
After the U.S.banking industrywas deregulated in the 1980s , economy and loan bankswere allowed to invest deposits in commercial , not just residential , real acres . Many economy banks began making risky investment , and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board ( FHLBB ) try out to stop them , against the wishes of the Reagan administration , which was against government interference with business .
In 1989 , when the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine , Calif. , collapse , its president , Charles H. Keating Jr. , accused the FHLBB and its former head Edwin J. Gray of conspire against him . Gray attest that five senators had ask him to back off on the Lincoln investigation .
These senator – Alan Cranston of California , Dennis DeConcini of Arizona , John Glenn of Ohio , Donald Riegle of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona – became cognize as the Keating Five , after it was revealed that they received a amount of $ 1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating . While an investigation determined that all five act improperly , they all take this was a standard crusade financial backing practice .
In August 1991 , the Senate Ethics Committee recommend exclusion for Cranston and criticized the other four for " refutable behaviour . "
Cranston had already decided not to take to the woods for reelection in 1992 . DeConcini and Riegle serve out their terms but did not persist for reelection in 1994 . John Glenn was reelected in 1992 and dish out until he retired in 1999 . John McCain continued his work in the Senate , and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008 .
A interchangeable toxic combination of money and big businessman was postulate in the Chen Shui - bian scandals in Taiwan .
3: The Chen Shui-bian Scandals
Chen Shui - bian was a Taiwanese politico who uprise from poverty to power in his country . The populist Chen was a reformer and a gravid showman cognize by his nickname A - bian . In 2000 , his opposition grouping boot out the Kuomintang , the party which had ruled Taiwan since it was exiled from mainland China in 1949 . As chair , Chen oppose the strengthening of ties with China ’s administration and flirted with the idea of declare Taiwan independent from the mainland .
Chen won reelection in 2004 , but the scandals begin in 2006 . First , his Logos - in - jurisprudence was accused of insider trading . The same yr , his married woman was charged with corruption and forgery . It was try that she had wire $ 21 million incampaign fundstobanksin Singapore , Switzerland and the Cayman Islands . There were charge that Chen himself had misused his self-confidence ; his opposition try unsuccessfully to put on an endeavor to recall him from position . Under the law , he could n’t be prosecuted while in office .
The malicious gossip remain to progress , and Chen resigned in August 2008 . He was arrested six months later for embezzling $ 3.15 million of public store and taking $ 9 million in bribe . A court convict him in 2009 . He and his wife were both sentenced to life inprisonand fined a amount of $ 15 million . Their sentences were later reduced to 20 years . The promising life history of A - bian was over .
intimate misbehavior has been the downfall of many a politico , as we ’ll see in our next scandal .
2: Bunga Bunga
Just as " Watergate " will always sum up the scandals surrounding Richard Nixon , " bunga bunga " will probably be the catchword associated with former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . His bunga bunga parties that conduct place at his mansion house near Milan were instant replay of Romanic orgies .
Berlusconi was a self - made businessman who had grow to wealth from an early gig as acruise shiplounge singer . Using his media conglomerate as a launching pad , he stay on a power in Italian politics for 17 year , more than half that time as prime government minister . accusal of revenue enhancement fraud and bribery were hurled at him early on . In addition , Berlusconi was a notorious man-about-town – one theory held that he got the theme for " bunga bunga " from his friend , the now depose Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi , who allegedly host parties with " harems " of young women .
Berlusconi ’s most striking outrage came in 2011 when he was accused of paying forsexwith an minor lady friend . He had befriend a teenage runaway from Morocco named Karima El Mahroug , who was also known as Ruby Heartstealer . She worked as a nightspot bellydancer and wait on Berlusconi ’s angry parties . Although she and Berlusconi both deny a sexual human relationship , Berlusconi used his influence to get her out ofjailfor theft in 2010 , an act of chivalry that authorities regard as an abuse of force .
Before his test on the sex law-breaking and abuse of place begin , Berlusconi had already been swept out of office . While he had been enjoying bunga bunga , the Italian economy had been going down the waste pipe . The European debt crisis of 2011 was Berlusconi ’s ultimate downfall , though he was still schedule to stand trial for sex activity offence , with a possible 15 - year jail term hang over him .
Even the most pious of pol can be immersed in dirt , as we ’ll see in the next discussion section .
1: The Moshe Katsav Rape Scandal
Moshe Katsav , like Chen Shui - bian , was a poor boy who uprise to a posture of mightiness in his country . Katsav was acquit to a Judaic phratry in Iran . His family immigrate to Israel in 1951 , when Katsav was 5 . They lived in a refugee tent cantonment for several years .
Katsav , an observant Jew , commence a university didactics and joined the button-down Likud Party . He held a number of console posts in the eighties and 1990s . In 2000 , the Israeli parliament , the Knesset , elected him to the ceremonial but esteemed post of president . While in office , he rejected many pleas for free pardon from convicted outlaw .
His troubles began in 2006 , and it was Katsav himself who set them vagabond . He quetch to the attorney superior general that he was being blackmailed by an employee who had work for him when he was minister of touristry in the late nineties . An investigating conclude that the woman ’s charge were true : Katsav had twice thrust her to havesexwith him . He was charged with two count of rape .
Other women came forward , accuse Katsav of indecent assault and intimate harassment while he was President of the United States . Katsav traverse his guilt , though he admitted " I ’ve hugged and kissed fair sex . " He claimed the pursuance was a political vendetta .
In 2007 , he resigned the presidency . He negociate a supplication bargain that would have meant no jail time , but changed his thinker and plead not shamefaced . At his tribulation in 2010 , he was convict and an appeal court upheld the verdict . Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison house and command to bear recompense to his victims . Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the occasion of Katsav ’s sentencing was " a twenty-four hours of lugubriousness and shame . "
translate on for lots more information about political dirt .
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies , Marjorie Dorfman , Mary Fons , Deborah Hawkins , Martin Hintz , Linnea Lundgren , David Priess , Julia Clark Robinson , Paul Seaburn , Heidi Stevens , and Steve Theunissen
