not even bad prose can obscure that the corporate scandals are hatching a catastrophe for Republicans. They will probably destroy this administration. Let’s dispose of the red herrings first. The President’s sale of $850,000 in Harken Energy stock, just days before it tanked in 1990, is not going to get him in trouble for insider trading. Yes, his sale came just eight days before Harken announced a weak quarter–but for an insider-trading rap to be proved, it must be shown that President Bush had "material information." He is not criminally culpable for having known, as a board member, that his company was spiraling down the toilet. And, yes, the stock’s value fell from $4 a share when he sold it to a dollar and change just weeks later. But it also later rose to $8. Harken see-sawed enough that it will never be certain whether Bush bailed out or "sold into good news," as his spokeswoman Karen Hughes has always insisted.

What kills the President is that every time Harken comes up, Democrats get to retell the story of how he made his money. And this, basically, is the story of the spectacular unfairness with which moneymaking opportunities are lavished on the politically connected. It is the story of a man who has been rewarded for repeated failures by having money shot at him through a fire hose. It is the story of a man who talks with a straight face about having "earned" a fortune of tens of millions of dollars, without