Our country has a rich tradition of cherishing the faux pas of relatives of high-ranking public figures. Recall Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, Roger Clinton and a small army of Kennedys.
George Bush is no stranger to familial disgrace. His daughters drink too much. His mother insults Katrina victims. His brother, Neil, enjoys prostitutes. Even his dog Barney, a PR dream, has been stevedored into a pit of shame.
This Tuesday, Bush's uncle, Bucky, became the latest presidential relative to redden cheeks when he officially became the target of an SEC probe for raking in $6 million of unauthorized money in an options backdating scheme. Bucky allegedly had his hand in the cookie jar from 2000 to 2006, when he worked for Engineered Support Systems, Inc., a defense contractor. Read more about it here.
Dick Cheney also had a spot of clannish trouble this week, when the comptroller of the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigatory arm, testified before the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that Cheney's son-in-law, Philip Perry, the general counsel at the Homeland Security Department, had been stonewalling a GAO investigation into why DHS is such a mess. Conveniently, Perry was scheduled to resign from DHS and return to private practice on Tuesday, the day of the hearing. More here.
Photo: Jaqian
