The "vandal scandal" stories, consumed by the media like ecstasy at a rave, were spread by anonymous White House sources, and given on-the-record credibility by White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, whom Weiner called "shameless." The stories were deemed false in a letter from the GAO after an investigation that was requested by Weiner's House Judiciary Committee colleague Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga. The letter was released with comparatively little press attention two weeks ago.

"A GAO study has confirmed there was no destruction of keyboards, no graffiti, there was no vandalism," Weiner said. Flanking Weiner were Rob Housman, an attorney and former assistant director of the White House drug policy office; Jeff Gulko, who also worked in the drug policy office; Bridger McGaw, former assistant press secretary to Vice President Al Gore; and Matthew Donoghue, former director of communications for the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. White House spokesman Scott McClellan pointed out, however, that "there is no actual GAO 'report,' which the congressman refers to in his letter. There's just a letter from GAO."

McClellan seemed to imply what others at the Bush White House have been telling reporters on background since the letter from Bernard Ungar, the GAO director of physical infrastructure, was reported two weeks ago: that the vandalism did, indeed, take place, but the White House didn't cooperate with the GAO investigation. One anonymous aide told the Associated Press: "We never kept a list of all the incidents, and therefore did not have anything to turn over. That doesn't mean the incidents didn't happen. We just were pleased to let the matter fade so that people could return to the focus on policy."

McClellan seemed to be coming from the same vantage point as the unnamed source in the AP story. "'There is no record of damage that may have been deliberately caused by employees of the Clinton administration,'" stressed McClellan, reading from the GAO letter. "'White House repair records do not contain information on the causes of damages being repaired.'"

In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, former Clinton White House press secretary Jake Siewert blamed the fracas almost entirely on the media, but that's not how Weiner and many of Siewert's former colleagues see it. "I believe that the responsibility for this largely lies with the White House," said Weiner. "They fed this story, they nurtured this story, they spread this story." This was, in Weiner's estimation, part of a "strategy by the nascent Bush administration to toss up as much dust and smoke about the Clinton administration to give themselves a soft landing. It makes good copy to say 'Well, there's a new sheriff in town, and we don't vandalize offices.' Well, neither did the preceding administration."

At the Friday press conference, Weiner specifically singled out McClellan's boss, Fleischer, as particularly culpable for the story getting play in the press. He quoted Fleischer from the White House briefing on the day the story became big news, saying, "You know, I really stopped paying attention to all the places" where vandalism supposedly took place, as well as another comment he made referring to a White House staffer "cataloguing" the alleged damage done. Weiner called Fleischer "shameless in his deeds here."

Hard-working Clinton staffers were being used as "cannon fodder," Weiner said. Donoghue referred to the incident as "a uniquely Capitol punishment, and that is the besmirching of our reputations. Standing here, all I can think of is what Ray Donovan said years ago, which is 'Where do I go to get my reputation back?' And that's why we're here today."

Donovan, President Reagan's labor secretary, was singled out by name as the first Cabinet secretary ever investigated by an independent counsel. He was acquitted of bribery charges on May 25, 1987. Conversely, no Clinton staffers were investigated or even named, and unless you were paying really close attention to the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, you probably have never heard of Donoghue.

When pressed by a reporter about how much of his "reputation" had actually been "besmirched," Donoghue said that the vandalism scandal affected his life through "sly digs at parties" and "relatives asking questions: 'Were you involved in that? Did you do this?'" Additionally, said Donoghue, "for those of us seeking work, it's left a cloud over our heads." Donoghue, McGaw and Gulko are all seeking employment.

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