On Apr 4, 1:49=A0pm, samsloan <samhsl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> I just did a little bit of research into the Teapot Dome Scandal.
What? *First* you write a book about Harding, and then *_LATER_* you
finally do any research on the Teapot Dome Scandal?? Um, isn't this
just a tad backwards, Sam?
> The
> whole thing was about the fact that the Secretary of Interior under
> Harding, Albert Fall, leased oil fields in the Teapot Dome Area of
> Wyoming to Sinclair Oil and another big oil company, in return for
> which Fall received two loans, one of which had to be repaid.
In other words, Fall took a bribe. This is quite illegal for a
Secretary of the Interior. He went to prison for it.
> The oil fields are still producing to this day.
I guess if Fall hadn't taken the bribe, they would have gone dry by
now? Sam pretty much always misses the point, doesn't he?
> This seems to be a very small deal. There must have been a thousand
> scandals bigger than this one. The leases themselves were entirely
> legal. The only thing questionable was the loans, which were kept
> secret and Harding did not and could not have known about them.
What Harding knew, or should have known, was Fall's character before
he appointed him to the Cabinet. But with Harding, political cronyism
often counted more than character. The appointments of Fall, Daugherty
(Attorney General) and Hays (Postmaster General), not mention other
lesser appointments, were pure cronyism.
> I fail to see how this one scandal, that did not come out until years
> after Harding had died, could cause him to be labeled as the Worst
> President Ever.
"This *_one_* scandal"?? Our Sam once again demonstrates his
"fierce" research skills. Just grabbing the first source I have handy
on Harding, the 1988 World Book Encyclopedia, I see this in the
Harding entry:
"Harding brought so many of his friends to Wa****ngton they became
known as 'the Ohio gang.' Some were untrustworthy, but he enjoyed them
socially and gave them im****tant jobs. A tide of corruption soon began
to rise ... [The Teapot Dome scandal is then described.]
"Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty was tried in 1926 on charges
concerning his administration of the Alien Property Custodian's
office ...
"Jesse W. Smith, a friend of Daugherty, committed suicide in 1923.
It had been revealed that Smith was arranging settlements between the
Department of Justice and law violators. Misuse of funds in the
Veterans' bureau resulted in the suicide of Charles F. Cramer, legal
adviser of the agency, and the imprisonment of Charles K. Forbes, the
director."
Checking another source, the 1972 Encyclopaedia Brittannica, we see
the Property Custodian and Veterans' Bureau scandals described as
"wholesale looting."
> There was also the small matter that Harding was sleeping with a
> teenaged girl while president.
Sup****ting the point I made earlier, that Harding devoted more time
to philandering and other such pursuits than to proper governance.
World Book sums up Harding as follows:
"Historians almost unanimously rank Harding as one of the weakest
Presidents ... He failed because he was weak-willed and a poor judge
of character."
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