Political Scandals

Latest Articles

Burn, baby, burn

The Olympics, zipper-gate, stimulus money, and why Coakley must investigate City Hall
The Phoenix opposed President Barack Obama's efforts to help Chicago win the 2016 Summer Olympics on the grounds that doing business with the International Olympic Committee is always bad news for the host community.
By EDITORIAL | October 07, 2009

5. Rod Blagojevich

PAY-ROD
An Illinois governor is alleged to have put a vacant US Senate seat up for sale? We’re shocked, shocked . In his defense, could his mind have been controlled by that brown-furred, Tribble-looking mammal that’s been sucking on his scalp for the past 20 years? Seriously, what the hell is that thing on his head? And why aren’t they both in jail yet?
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 24, 2009

Marijuana reform

A less-than-perfect but much-needed initiative. Plus, more evidence that Trent Lott is a weasel.
There is no sense to be found in the prosecution of individuals for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
By EDITORIAL | November 28, 2007

A tragicomedy of errors

In an excerpt from his new book, The Fall of the House of Bush, author Craig Unger details how Bush is, well, screwing up the world
It was not until after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were narrowly re-elected that many Americans began to realize that the Iraq War represented a dangerous moment in American history.
By CRAIG UNGER | November 20, 2007

Why Mukasey stinks

Plus, what the Obama endorsement shows about Patrick
The idea that former federal judge Michael Mukasey may soon be confirmed as US attorney general is almost a welcome relief. But it should not be.
By EDITORIAL | October 25, 2007

Legislature moves to protect Maine journalists

Shield law
“The very fact that the court would grant a motion like this, when there’s no suit pending,” she says. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
By JEFF INGLIS | October 17, 2007

Smells like mean spirit

Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
Lines upon reading that the Minneapolis airport bathroom in which GOP senator Larry Craig was arrested on June 11 has become a tourist attraction
By JAMES PARKER | September 19, 2007

Not accepted anywhere

Politics and other mistakes
I admit Winkle — it’s OK if I call you Winkle, isn’t it, Mr. Paw? — doesn’t have a lot to do with Maine politics.
By AL DIAMON | September 19, 2007

Backlash blues

Will the Larry Craig scandal bolster anti-gay bias?
Most big news stories fit the snowball metaphor, with an isolated fact or two slowly gaining significance and momentum over a period of days or weeks.
By ADAM REILLY | September 06, 2007

Old Port shuffle

Moving from the center to the outskirts
The national media would have you believe that a little game of bathroom-stall footsie is a threat to our civilization.
By BRIAN DUFF | September 05, 2007

Same as the old boss

Congressional Dems were supposed to get us out of this war
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? What a joke. Meet the new boss . . .
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 29, 2007

Power play

The timely (and timeless) Born Yesterday
A play about political corruption always goes down easier with a little humor.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | July 31, 2007

Pushing to replace Bush

Rhode Islanders are getting busy while supporting their favorite democrats
On an overcast night in early June, nearly 100 of US Senator Barack Obama’s local supporters crowded into the Peerless Lofts in downtown Providence.
By MATTHEW JERZYK | July 11, 2007

The 100 unsexiest men 2007: 30-21

These guys couldn't turn on a radio
These guys couldn't turn on a radio
By | April 12, 2007

Worst in breed: Newsmakers

The 100 Unsexiest men 2007
Who are the unsexiest newsmaking men of 2007?
By PHOENIX STAFF | April 12, 2007

Innocent abroad

Their woman in Baghdad
Last week, political humor Web site Wonkette.com urged Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to kidnap an American journalist.
By ADAM REILLY | April 04, 2007

Trouble at the top

The Walter Reed fiasco is a national disgrace
The back of our limo has one of those yellow ribbon decals that say “Support Our Troops” — just above the “Impeach Bush” sticker.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | March 14, 2007

Rove’s footprints

Where Karl goes, corruption is sure to follow. Plus, a solution to military immorality.
“Turd Blossom.” That’s what President Bush affectionately calls Karl Rove, his top political aide. It’s an apt nickname, especially these days.
By EDITORIAL | March 14, 2007

The GOP lurches rightward

McCain, Romney, and Giuliani are all morphing into extremists — and that can only benefit the Democrats
Did the Republican presidential candidates see something in the 2006 midterm elections that everyone else missed?
By EDITORIAL | February 21, 2007

Taking stock of an imperiled free press

News you can lose
Frontline ’s new PBS series on the shifting balance-of-power between the government and the media — New War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of the News — isn’t uplifting. Far from it. But it’s essential viewing for anyone interested in the future of a free US press.
By ADAM REILLY | February 07, 2007

Drinan’s spirit

Plus, Boston’s new school chief finks out
The recent death of Father Robert Drinan offers not only an opportunity to remember and celebrate his principled political spirit, but also cause to recollect the sorry state of affairs that led to his election.
By EDITORIAL | January 31, 2007

Rhode Island’s man of mystery

Projo reporter Mark Arsenault carves a budding sideline in fiction
The hard-luck obit writer has just made his literary debut, in Gravewriter , a fast-paced mystery that represents a promising new chapter in Providence Journal reporter Mark Arsenault’s budding sideline as a fiction writer.
By IAN DONNIS | December 14, 2006

Separated at birth

The partisan difference is the big thing dividing Chafee and whitehouse
Six years ago, when Lincoln Chafee won the US Senate seat to which he’d been appointed after his father’s death, it wouldn’t have been surprising if Sheldon Whitehouse approached him during the victory celebration at Providence Marriott to offer his congratulations.
By IAN DONNIS | October 25, 2006

An empty gesture

Why Menino’s police reform is a bad joke
Boston mayor Thomas Menino’s plan for a panel of three civilians to review complaints about the police is vintage Menino. And that, sad to say, is not a compliment.
By EDITORIAL | September 05, 2006

Peaches

Impeach My Bush | XL
Peaches sharpens her synth hooks, varies the electrogrooves, and serves up 13 tracks that are just amusing enough in their risqué behavior to keep the smiles coming.
By MATT ASHARE | July 18, 2006

The constitutional crisis no one seems to understand

Freedom watch does freezergate
The dolts in Congress let the imperial presidency get so out of hand that we are now faced with a truly nasty constitutional crisis.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 02, 2006

The new McCarthyism

Bush tries to scare the wits out of whistle blowers — and the press
We were going to write in praise of fired CIA official Mary O. McCarthy for her assumed role in leaking the details of the Bush Administration’s network of overseas secret prisons for captured terrorist suspects, but then the admirable lady threw a monkey wrench into our plans by denying that she had done so.
By EDITORIAL | April 26, 2006

Apartheid, Bush style

The Republican rape of New Orleans. Plus, Rumsfeld and Romney
More pitiable than being a Democrat in President George W. Bush’s America is to be an African-American Democrat.
By EDITORIAL | April 19, 2006

Justice DeLayed

A leading political gangster is forced from office amid a widening criminal scandal
The worm turns. Former Republican House Majority leader Tom DeLay is resigning his seat in Congress.
By EDITORIAL | April 05, 2006