You pick 'em?

Nah. Why choose? This week's Scandal Scorecard Update is a twofer, bringing us to a nice even 60 examples of Republican misbehavior during the Bush/Delay years.

First, there's Medicare II...

The Stakeholder provided the pointer to this item.

Information the Bush administration excluded from its 2004 report on the Medicare program shows that a typical 65-year-old can expect to spend 37% of his or her Social Security income on Medicare premiums, co-payments and out-of-pocket expenses in 2006. That share is projected to grow to almost 40% in 2011 and nearly 50% by 2021.

Hmmm...you might imagine that huge jumps in Medicare costs would be worth noting in a report on Medicare. But maybe you have to be a Democratic Congressman to get it...

The table was provided by the Department of Health and Human Services at the request of Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif. Stark...sought the data after noticing that a chart included in previous annual reports was not in the 2004 version.

It's not the kind of thing that the chief actuary, for instance, would find worthy of note...

Richard Foster, Medicare's chief actuary, said the program's trustees — administration officials and appointees — replaced the chart with a graph that lacks specific numbers...

...but then again, Foster (a key figure in the Medicare I scandal, too) might think that the "specific numbers" just aren't much to brag about.

The disclosure comes just days after the administration announced Medicare premiums will rise by 17% next year due to rising health costs.

Scandalous.

But wait! There's more...

A leading House Democrat asked the Justice Department's watchdog Tuesday to investigate Attorney General John Ashcroft's trips last year to promote the anti-terror Patriot Act.

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, contends a pair of speaking tours Ashcroft took broke laws barring publicity campaigns and grassroots lobbying by executive branch officials, unless authorized by Congress.

****

In addition, 80 of the 93 U.S. attorneys said they conducted related activities -- ranging from speeches to newspaper editorials -- after receiving a directive from headquarters urging them to discuss the law with members of Congress and the public, according to the GAO review.

Anytime our country's chief law enforcement officer breaks the law, well, it's a scandal.

Another in a long list, which you can find here.