Paul Krugman's New York Times column points out that George W. Bush has personally profited, to the tune of at least a million dollars, by the same kind of phony transactions, insider trading, and accounting shadiness by which he now asserts to be outraged -- at least in relation to Worldcom, though not necessarily at Enron.

Stories like this prove how incredibly clever -- if lying and despicable -- the Republicans were to pursue Whitewater so fervently. When these stories came up in the 2000 campaign, they were dismissed as Whitewater revenge that had nothing to them. If Democrats today call for full investigations, the GOP will also say it's revenge for Whitewater. Since Whitewater was so obviously purely partisan, people would probably believe it.

By forcing a six-year investigation on President Clinton with no clear evidence at all of any wrongdoing, they not only personally destroyed Clinton, they cheapened the presidency to the point that people believed anyone could do it, that a drunken, drugged-out "C" student with nothing but affability and a famous name was qualified as long as he kept his zipper closed and didn't buy land in Arkansas. By backing off from it when the people saw it for what it was, they've made it all but impossible for any real investigation of Bush, no matter that the evidence against him is three times as strong as anything Congress ever had on any Clinton.

When you see stock prices plummeting, remember that this is what happens when the people in charge -- of companies and of Congress -- put personal gain and "our side wins" ahead of the public good. The only thing Bush, Cheney, Pitt and the others care about is that anyone who gets caught is not them.