You think this is easy?

Some weeks pickings on the scandal scene are mighty thin. I mean, I've tried to hold the Upper Left Scandal Scorecard to a pretty firm self-imposed standard, and by and large I think I've done pretty well. Basically, I'm looking for something that goes beyond the merely outrageous and involves the possibility of punishment by a...ahem...'controlling legal authority.' DeLay's recent explosions of stupidity, for instance, certainly hit the top of the outrage scale, but they fall just short of a Scorecard point.

I was almost ready to settle for this gem, featuring anonymous sources and the Upper Left's Senior Senator...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Anonymous allegations against Lester Crawford, President Bush's choice to head the Food and Drug Administration, prompted the Senate Health Committee to postpone a vote on his nomination Wednesday and request an internal FDA investigation.

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Later, in response to questions, committee spokesman Craig Orfield added that Enzi had requested that the FDA's Office of Internal Affairs "open an investigation into allegations concerning Dr. Crawford made by an anonymous FDA employee."

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A week ago, two Democratic senators, Patty Murray of Washington and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, said they would block Crawford's nomination because they were unsatisfied with his explanation of why the "morning-after pill" has not been approved for use without a prescription. Under Senate tradition, one senator can block Senate action on a nomination.

...and it may score yet, depending on what gets dug up. So far, though, there's really no there there. Mere titilation doesn't rise to the exhalted status of scandal we honor around here.

In the nick of time, though, this caught my attention and allowed me to drag out the logo without hesitation...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A scientist who wrote e-mails about falsifying work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project was paid $4,900 for a Yucca assignment he got after the e-mails became known, the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday.

Last week, the Energy Department said the scientist - a USGS hydrologist identified by USGS Tuesday as Joe A. Hevesi - never billed for the work.

Hevesi was a principal author of e-mails written between 1998 and 2000 by scientists studying how water moved through the proposed waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In the e-mails to colleagues, Hevesi discussed making up facts, deleting inconvenient data and keeping two sets of files - "the ones that will keep (quality assurance) happy and the ones that were actually used."

Yeah. It's all there. Outrageous, unethical, illegal behavior being rewarded by Bushco with continued employment, which was the subject of a lie from the Energy Department. Good ol' Bushco, they never let me down. Of course, they may never let me know the whole truth, either...

Meanwhile, a congressional panel chaired by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., was pushing forward with plans to seek testimony from Hevesi and two other USGS scientists involved with the e-mails.

The Interior Department last week turned down a request for the scientists to testify before Porter's House Government Reform federal work force and agency organization subcommittee. The department cited ongoing criminal investigations by the FBI and inspectors general at the Energy and Interior departments.

I'll be waiting on those ongoing investigations. Of course, they may stumble upon too much "inconvenient data." If there isn't some news pretty soon, we may have another Scorecard winner on the horizon.