Eight years ago, I read the reports in early 2001 that W keys were missing from White House computers, among other incidents of vandalism allegedly done by Gore and Clinton staffers pissed off about the results of the election. But I thought it later came out that the vandalism never really took place. What’s the last word here?
I’d say no, unless you count post-its with things like “Hail To The Thief” as vandalism. The Clinton/Gore people were obviously a little pissed, but they didn’t cut phone lines or anything incredibly bad. Pranks like taking the ‘W’ keys from some computers is nowhere near the stuff that the crazies were saying.
A progressive group-http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0518-04.htm
Here’s Newsweek, which might be a little less biased-http://www.newsweek.com/id/167691
A little extra from Al Franken’s Lies: "Phone and computer lines had been cut, expletive-ridden graffiti written on the walls… The Washington Times quoted a Matt Drudge story titled “White House Offices Left Trashed: Porn Bombs, Lewd Messages.”
(His book was handy, you can google to get actual articles. The bit before the Times story was on CNN.)
So, yeah. Nothing like Grover Norquist going on CNN and telling them an insider told him $200k in damages and inoperable phones and such.
The missing ‘W’ keys really did happen, as did other petty stuff – things glued to desks, etc. There was no large-scale vandalism. Smaller incidents can’t be definitively traced to any particular person.
So far as I have heard, the 2009 transition was completed with all the ‘O’ keys on the keyboards. In other words, there was no “pranking,” much less serious vandalism, as the Bush team left the White House.
At the risk of seeming idealistic, I’m willing to bet there won’t be any at the end of the Obama administration, either.
Good summary Mr. Moto.
Personally, I thought the Clinton admin’s behavior sleazy, immature, and a little embarrassing to Dems, but not the huge deal it was made out to be.
If Bushies took a bunch of “O” keys or something, I’d shake my head, but still chuckle a little.
Thanks. I’ll never claim that this was any kind of a big deal, but I find it interesting when some Democrats go into full-on denial mode on this subject.
It happened, and it shouldn’t have.
Doorknobs were stolen? (in 2001)
The building is a historic site, isn’t it?
The missing keyboard letters and scattered litter (empty bags of Cheez-its?) is no big deal, but damage to the structure itself is a more serious thing, IMO.
If the Washington Post is to be believed:
Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology
Right, and the report does say that some of these doorknobs were antique doorknobs. This was one of the matters disputed by the Clinton people, and the eventual repair order showed a doorknob repair only.
It is possible that items were returned after press accounts surfaced of thefts - I’m not going to speculate. Suffice to say that the GAO - a body very independent in its investigations, found cause to say there was vandalism and recommended steps to minimize this in the future.
The OP wanted the last word - well, this should suffice.
Have you ever worked for the government?
When I joined my first operational command in 1994, supporting P3 aircraft in the Mediterranean, our data link, mission replay and archive functions were handled by a Direct View Console - a government issued hunk of gear compatible with little else. It looked like the consoles from the movie Apollo 13, and indeed had been installed at the command in 1968.
It was run in the back room by a Univac computer and rows and rows of tape drives.
Now, certainly the technology existed at that time to streamline this - and it happened shortly after I got there. All of that was replaced by off the shelf Sun boxes running Unix and archiving the data onto hard disks backed up regularly onto tape. Simple - except that it wasn’t done until the government spent money and time to do it.
Thanks for the GAO link, Mr. Moto, and for the other links from everyone else.
One hopes so.
During the transition today, I thought I saw something flash on the TV news today about phones glued to desks, but I may have misread. And the technology stuff is absurd but not surprising, similar to the Blackberry controversy, which I think is now dead.
There’s no need to in order to know that the whitehouse’ll always be full of exotic, and often out of date crap.
The point of the link was the intactitude of the ‘O’ keys.
The best quote from the story had to be:
I can imagine Bush pulling people aside and saying, “Hey. How 'bout a game of Frogger?”
I do have to give the guy credit for having a dignified transition. As much as I like Clinton’s admin, and as much as I understand how pissed off they must’ve been, I’ve always thought we Dems were supposed to be the adults in the room. (And I know that many Repubs think the same of themselves. )
The Dark Ages of Technology being:
MS Office 2003? That’s horrible!
How about the sorry state that Truman’s staff left the building in…
Or James Madison’s…