In 2001, the departing Clinton White House staff made quite a mess, according to this GAO report issued today. [PDF file]
When news of this first came out in early 2001, Clinton apologists pointed the finger at previous adminsitrations, saying in effect, "They did it first!" But the truth is that no administration in decades did as much damage as the Clinton team did on its way out the door:
The director of the Office of Administration (OA), who had been present during five previous transitions, said that he was “stunned” by what he saw during the 2001 transition and had not seen anything similar during previous ones, particularly in terms of the amount of trash. The OA associate director for facilities management said that there was more to clean during the 2001 transition than during previous transitions. The telephone service director, who had worked in the White House complex since 1973, said that he did not recall seeing, in past transitions, the large amount of trash that he had seen during the 2001 transition. Further, an employee who had worked in the White House complex since 1984 said that office space in the complex was messier during the 2001 transition than all of the other transitions he had seen.
Not that pointing the finger is an excuse for one's own sins. The fact is, they did trash the place, and beyond the financial cost of what they did, they sullied their administration by doing it. (Not to mention the real criminal implications of what they did.)
Posted by wasylik at June 11, 2002 02:49 PM