Scandals at high places in government:

Something new? No.

The Federal Government is caught surreptitiously snooping through news reporters emails and phone records. The president checks it out, and announces, "Nothing wrong here, everything's okay!"

That is just one of several current scandals, all of which have been brushed off in similar fashion. Some think this sort of thing has never happened before!

Go back to the early years of the Truman Administration. V.P. Truman, on April 12, 1945, became president upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Before being chosen as FDR's running mate in 1944, Truman had been a United States Senator from Missouri. Before that, he held a small time political position in Jackson County, MO (where I was born and raised).

Just as Barack Obama was helped in his early political career by domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, Harry Truman was supported by the notoriously corrupt Kansas City political boss, Tom Pendergast. As a result, scandals plagued Truman throughout his presidency.

At one point, another alleged scandal, rooted in Truman's Kansas City past, erupted. Maybe it was related to Truman's long-time friend and adviser, fellow Missourian Harry Vaughn, I no longer remember which scandal was the headline du jour.

So, President Truman traveled to Kansas City to 'get to the bottom' of the story. Shortly he appeared on the front steps of downtown Kansas City's Muehlebach Hotel, to address gathered reporters. "Well, boys," Truman announced, "You can go home now. I have checked this thing out and there is nothing to it." Whereupon, the reporters closed up their notebooks and 'went home'!

My father was infuriated. That was not 'the bottom of the scandal', but it was the end of the scandal!

What happened to Truman? In spite of his scandals, his colossal foreign policy mistakes, for which we are paying yet today, Truman is revered as the no-nonsense, 'The buck stops here' president, the epitomy of clean and honest government.

One day they'll be building a huge monument to Barack Obama.