Bush's Scrubbers
Richard Nixon was obsessed with leaks from within his administration, and his secret team of "plumbers" worked to stop these leaks, breaking the law as they went about their dirty business.
George W. Bush is obsessed with any public record that documents illegal, unethical, or embarrassing activities. He has a secret team of "scrubbers" who make sure such records mysteriously "disappear" from government offices and newspaper websites.
Here are some records that have disappeared. If you find more, please e-mail public@democrats.com.
Please note: long URL's often get chopped up in e-mail transmissions, so be sure you have attempted to "reassemble" a long URL before sending it to us. Also use the search feature of any site you visit, because an old article may have been archived with a different URL.
Austin Chronicle: W's Paper Chase
Scrubbed: January 2001
George Orwell Bush has repeatedly attempted (and too often succeeded) in scrubbing public records that are embarassing or worse (see http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=220). But here's the most astonishing scrub we've encountered yet - Bush is trying to scrub the ENTIRE RECORD OF HIS 6 YEARS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS! How is this possible? Back in January, Bush snuck ALL of his records into Papa Bush's Presidential Library. And now he won't let Texas archivists anywhere near them. Why is he hiding them? Perhaps there's proof of crimes committed during Funeralgate - and perhaps there are many other scandals we've never heard about. We demand an investigation!
White House Press Office: Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer
Scrubbed: 9/26/01 Unscrubbed: 10/6/01-11/27/01
If you listen to the recording of Ari Fleischer's press briefing on 9/26, you can clearly hear Fleischer answer the question about Bill Maher's remarks by saying: "they need to WATCH WHAT THEY SAY, watch what they do." (Click "Listen to the Briefing" and advance to 31 minutes 21 seconds.) But if you read the official transcript, "watch what you say" has been removed. Once again, the White House is scrubbing official records to hide embarrassing behavior. We demand an investigation!
MSNBC Scrubs GOP Censorship Story
Scrubbed: 9/24/01 Unscrubbed: 9/25/01
On September 24, MSNBC reported that Republican House staffers ordered C-SPAN cameras removed from Judiciary Committee hearings when Democrats called civil liberties advocates to testify. On September 25, this MSNBC article was re-written, and this section was completely removed.
Rumpus Online: O Daughter, Where Art Thou
Posted 4/?/01 - Scrubbed 4/12/01
In early April, an irreverent student publication at Yale called "The Rumpus" published an account of two episodes when Barbara Bush's secret service detail lost track of her. A few days later, the Rumpus editors were hauled before Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg. Immediately following the meeting, the article was scrubbed. Conservatives made a federal case for decades about the abuse of Yale's "free speech" policy following protests against racist theorist William Shockley in 1974, but have not uttered a word in protest over this gross violation.
FlashPhotography.com: Texas Christian University Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity party photos
Posted 2/25/01 - Scrubbed 3/3/01 - Unscrubbed 3/9/01
A picture of 19-year-old Jenna Bush, taken at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity bash that resulted in the arrest of Jenna's boyfriend for public intoxication, was scrubbed from the flashphotography.com web site. Flash Photography was hired to take photos at the event and, and posts the photos on its password-protected site for partygoers to purchase. White House officials tried to deny that Jenna was at the party, and the photo of Jenna was mysteriously removed after being posted for several days. White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the Bush administration had nothing to do with the picture's removal. "To my knowledge, there was no contact of any kind" with the photo company, she said Friday. Buchan is lying - we demand an investigation!
White House Press Office: Transcript of President Bush's First Press Conference
Posted and Scrubbed 2/22/01
CocoaGate: White House Scrubs the 'Cocoa' Bushism. During Bush's first press conference, he said a number of incoherent things. One that was the butt of many jokes was his reference to the cultivation of "cocoa" leaves in Columbia. (Listen to the audio for yourself at 19:26.) Well, somehow "cocoa" was changed to "coca" when the official White House transcript was posted. Tampering with government documents is a crime - we demand an investigation!
The London Observer: Best Democracy Money can Buy
Posted 11/26/2000 - Scrubbed 2/21/01 - Unscrubbed here
When Papa Bush left the White House, he gave a sweetheart deal to the Canadian company Barrick Goldstrike. Bush gave them mining rights for US land with an estimated $10 Billion in gold for only $10 Thousand. Oh and by the way, the company then hired Papa Bush after he left office where he was on the payroll till 1999. The company also donated $148,000 to the Republican Party. Unfortunately, you can't read this story any more at the Guardian because Barrick Goldstrike has threatened a lawsuit. But you can still read it here.
MSNBC: The Funeral Home Flap
Trouble for a Texas mortician with links to the Bush family
Posted 8/16/99 - Scrubbed 2/9/01 - Unscrubbed here
This article suddenly disappeared from MSNBC's web site on February 9, 2001 - the day Democrats.com published a major expose on Funeralgate. This follows the disappearance of several other articles unfavorable to George W. Bush, most notably: a) the Washington Post article by Al Kamen identifying the Republican thugs who stopped the Miami recount (reposted following inquiries by a Democrats.com member), and b) the CNN Crossfire transcript where Larry Flynt charged Bush with helping his girlfriend get an abortion in the early 1970's. It took the Watergate scandal to expose Nixon's "plumbers" - it looks like Funeralgate will expose Bush's "scrubbers".
Washington Post: The Miami-Dade Rioters
Article by Al Kamen identifying the Republican thugs who stopped the Miami recount
Posted 12/6/00 - Scrubbed circa 12/21/00 - Unscrubbed circa 1/1/01 (following inquiries from a member of Democrats.com)
Remember the thugs who rioted in the Miami-Dade elections office and stopped the manual recount of 10,000 undervotes? This one criminal event probably stole the election for Bush. But please try to forget it, because the Washington Post doesn't want you to remember this ominous event. On December 6, the link below showed a photo of the leaders, current and former Republican Congressional staffers. Now it's gone - straight out of Orwell. If you don't want this event to disappear down the memory hole, here's the full list, courtesy of bushwatch.com: 1. Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). 2. Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice. 3. Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican Congressional Committee. 4. Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently of Voter.com. 5. Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), now working at the consulting firm KPMG. 6. Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), now on the Bush campaign staff in Austin. 7. Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.). 8. Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources Committee. 9. Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). 10. Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa), now at Steelman Health Strategies. These individuals should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and ethics complaints should be filed against the Members of Congress who employ them.
CNN Crossfire: Larry Flynt Discusses Bush's Abortion
Posted 10/20/00 - Scrubbed 10/21/00 - Unscrubbed here
On CNN's Crossfire on October 20, Larry Flynt exploded a bombshell: that he has evidence that George W. Bush was "involved in an abortion in Texas" in the early 1970's - when abortions were still illegal. Amazingly, CNN has censored its own story!!!! This has all the markings of a cover-up by CNN - just like the cover-ups of Bush's many other scandals, from going AWOL, to using illegal drugs, to corruption in Texas government, to lying under oath.
Democrats.com: Bush Aides Possibly Altered National Guard Records To Conceal Grounding and Missed Duty
Aides to Texas Governor George W. Bush visited the Air National Guard archives at Camp Mabry in 1997 and possibly altered Bush's military service records to conceal Bush's grounding from flight in 1972 and subsequent missed duty, according to a former senior official of the Texas National Guard.
