# Assassinations in the Bush Administration **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 21, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169 "2005-10-21T00:18:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/1 "2005-10-21T00:18:35Z")
Do you think it’s possible with indictments going around that the Bush administration could start acting like a crime family that’s turning on one another? They’ve kind of been acting like mafiosos this whole time, would you put it past them to kill someone who seemed like they were going to finger the wrong person? I don’t think Bush will go down because he’s probably got plenty of inbuilt plausible deniability, and I doubt he takes a terribly active role in what’s going on. Erek ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/2 "2005-10-21T00:31:19Z")
I expect a full fledge gang war in the streets of Washington DC any day now. I heard the various Republican Families are ‘going to the mattresses’ as we speak in fact, and all the Capo’s are on high alert. -XT ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/3 "2005-10-21T00:37:24Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > I expect a full fledge gang war in the streets of Washington DC any day now. I heard the various Republican Families are ‘going to the mattresses’ as we speak in fact, and all the Capo’s are on high alert. > > -XT It’d be like the Sopranos except it would on all day and all night on CNN, it’d be glorious. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/4 "2005-10-21T00:46:32Z")
Well, if I were “Scooter” Libby I would refuse any invitations to go fishing. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/5 "2005-10-21T00:49:00Z")
Irony would be if they sent GW to prison for tax evasion… -XT ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/6 "2005-10-21T00:50:56Z")
Well, I did see Condi on Meet the Press with an amo belt strapped across her chest, and holding what looked vaguely like an AK-47. Maybe the OP is onto something… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/7 "2005-10-21T01:03:11Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Irony would be if they sent GW to prison for tax evasion… Now, Universe, I know I haven’t been a very good pantheist… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/8 "2005-10-21T01:18:40Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Irony would be if they sent GW to prison for tax evasion… > > -XT Racketeering, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/9 "2005-10-21T01:33:28Z")
So what is the “Great Debate” in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/10 "2005-10-21T01:37:57Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Well, I did see Condi on Meet the Press with an amo belt strapped across her chest, and holding what looked vaguely like an AK-47. Maybe the OP is onto something… That would’ve made last Sunday’s _Meet the Press_ far more entertaining. Mr. Russert: So, you have absolutely no interest in running for President? Sec. Rice: Look, Tim, ask me any variation on that question again and I’ll blow your f------ head off. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/11 "2005-10-21T01:59:35Z")
Nah, if Nixon didn’t do it…However, I did read on the Net that the Clintons left a trail of bodies all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/12 "2005-10-21T02:10:30Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > So what is the “Great Debate” in this thread? Does Al Haig still have the stuff to end up in charge, or will the young guns like Bolton end up ruling the roost? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/13 "2005-10-21T05:27:20Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > So what is the “Great Debate” in this thread? More like a Great Deal of Empty Speculation. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/14 "2005-10-21T05:51:40Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’d be like the Sopranos except it would on all day and all night on CNN, it’d be glorious. I’m picturing a _Grand Theft Auto_-style game wherein you, a trusted low-level White House aide, have to take out the leakers one by one. As you blast them to hell and dump them in the Potomac, the sewers, and elsewhere, you move up the ranks through the Pentagon and end up White House Chief of Staff. From there, as you bulk up and cultivate a legion of prostitute/reporters and drug dealers who make you rich, you start your power play and eventually become Vice President, then declare war on the President. When you kill his entire army by your lonesome, ta da, you’re in charge. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/15 "2005-10-21T12:45:33Z")
If we’re going to do this seriously, I’ll say no, because there’s been dissent in this administration before and I don’t think anyone has been shot as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/16 "2005-10-21T13:56:31Z")
In all seriousness, when was the last presidential administration that engaged in murder? Has there ever been one? The allegations about Vince Foster were, I think we can all agree, unfounded. I don’t recall any mysterious deaths tied to the GHW Bush, Reagan, Carter, or Ford administrations. Nixon’s administration at least had the spectre of such a thing. G. Gordon Liddy took the possibility seriously enough that he volunteered to be on a streetcorner whenever they wanted; his idea being that he could be shot and killed there without the assassination endangering his family. The only problem with that story is that, while I’ve no doubt it’s true, I think Liddy was the only guy in the Nixon White House thinking along those lines. He and his group had contemplated other murders - columnist Jack Anderson was a target - but so far as I know, even those plans never got out of the formative stage. Of course, LBJ had Kennedy killed. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/17 "2005-10-21T14:15:24Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Nixon’s administration at least had the spectre of such a thing. [30 Watergate Witnesses Have Met Violent Deaths](http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Watergate%20Deaths.html) (1976) This one was raised eyebrows at the time it happened: > [@](#): > > Dorothy Hunt, the wife of convicted White House “plumber” E. Howard Hunt, was killed, along with 41 other people, when United Airlines Flight 553 crashed near Chicago’s Midway Airport on Dec. 8, 1972. > Mrs. Hunt, who, like her husband, had worked for the CIA, was allegedly carrying $100,000 in “hush” money so her husband would not implicate White House officials in Watergate. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/18 "2005-10-21T14:19:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > In all seriousness, when was the last presidential administration that engaged in murder? Has there ever been one? > > The allegations about Vince Foster were, I think we can all agree, unfounded. I don’t recall any mysterious deaths tied to the GHW Bush, Reagan, Carter, or Ford administrations. I dunno, man. Bill Casey’s death alway seemed a little coincidental. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/19 "2005-10-21T14:44:10Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > [30 Watergate Witnesses Have Met Violent Deaths](http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/Watergate%20Deaths.html) (1976) Man, that’s weird. This is the first article I’ve ever seen that called strokes, heart attacks and cancer “violent deaths.” There are seven of them on that list, and that’s not counting Hoover and Johnson, since they went out of their way to call those suspicious. I wonder if that knocks any zeroes off the 100 million billion to 1 odds. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169/20 "2005-10-21T14:51:00Z")
“I know it was you, Karl. You broke my heart.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassinations-in-the-bush-administration/327169.md?page=2)