Scandal

SILVER SPRING - Montgomery County public school officials announced in May that two teachers at the Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) had given copies of a standardized math test to their students before the exam, prompting a "cheating scandal" that threatens to end the careers of a math teacher and an administrator. The school's principal has been removed and other teachers have been suspended. The predictable parental reaction was outrage. But the target of the anger was the school system, not the so-called cheaters.

Fernando Collor de Mello is the only president Brazil has, the best available and, upon his election two years ago, the first chosen by the people in three decades. He came in on a tidal wave of enthusiasm for youth and free market solutions to the great South American country's daunting problems. Too bad that, one week before the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro casts the world spotlight on his vibrant and ecologically crucial country, the wheels are coming off his cart.There was the sexual scandal between cabinet ministers, which made his swinging image grist for comedians.

Officials responsible for the scandal surrounding the Maryland State Games have betrayed the public's trust. Outrageous mismanagement and extravagant spending that benefited health department officials, friends and relatives turned a legitimate program aimed at promoting amateur athletics into a self-aggrandizing sham.Health secretary Adele A. Wilzack watched, encouraged and at times approved questionable activities by these officials. She must be held accountable for the Schaefer administration's first scandal.

The scandal surrounding the Maryland State Games, which received some $1 million in state funds, raises troubling questions about the stewardship of health secretary Adele Wilzack. Charges from legislators of "blatant mismanagement," "rampant nepotism" and "abuse of funds" will be hard to rebut. This could become a big embarrassment for the Schaefer administration.While it is commendable that Ms. Wilzack acted swiftly to straighten out this situation once problems surfaced, it does not explain why she strongly supported this program for two years when the objectives of the Maryland State Games -- holding an annual amateur competition and trying to lure the U.S. Olympic Festival to Maryland -- are far removed from her department's activities.

Jay Leno has already taken 545 shots at the 1998 White House sex scandals. And that's not even counting any jokes from his August shows.David Letterman isn't doing too shabbily himself. The king of the "Top 10" list has told 364 sex jokes about President Clinton and his escapades, while fellow late-night funnymen Conan O'Brien and Bill Maher clocked in at 152 and 111 jokes respectively.All told, the late-night television comedians have told 1,172 sex jokes related to the scandal affectionately known as "Zippergate."

Another in the long string of outrages in this nation's biggest financial scandal -- the collapse of the U.S. savings and loan industry -- was on view last month as members of Congress jockeyed for position to posture once more for political gain on this issue. And posturing seemed to be all these incumbents cared about: No one was remotely interested in the fact that this wheel-spinning is costing taxpayers $6 million a day.If the grandstanding in the House Banking Committee continues through the end of the year, the delay could wind up soaking taxpayers for $1.4 billion.

Some people just never get the word. With Congress as an institution in increasingly bad odor with the public, some of its leaders refuse to face up to the implications of the Great House Bank Scandal. Dozens, perhaps scores, of House members used what was really just supposed to be a payroll office as a personal, interest-free, unlimited line of credit. Nice perk, considering that their constituents were paying 12 to 19 percent interest for the same service. The so-called bank has been shut down, but an accounting of who abused the system is yet to be made public.

JERUSALEM -- During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot next week, President Moshe Katsav is scheduled to hold an open house at his official residence to greet the public. A few days later, he is to preside over the opening of the winter session of the Israeli parliament. But the normally festive events are expected to be awkward affairs, because Katsav is under police investigation for suspected sexual harassment and the possible rape of a former secretary in his residence. For years considered a colorless "Mr. Clean," Katsav, 61, is at the center of a scandal that has tainted the presidency, a ceremonial post that is the highest office in Israel and whose holder represents the nation in official functions at home and abroad.

WASHINGTON -- Of all the trends in modern U.S. politics, none has been more destructive or dispiriting than the emergence of the permanent scandal state. In the quarter century since Watergate, it has become routine for each party to try to destroy the leaders of the other by attacking their ethics on the job, their morals at home -- or both. At every turn, the news media has followed the parties step for step, trumpeting each new allegation and digging tirelessly for new ones.The swirl of charge and countercharge has reached a crescendo with the Republican drive to impeach President Clinton for trying to conceal his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

AS THE mind-numbing Lewinsky scandal winds finally to its anticlimax, it is getting to be time for an ethical debriefing. Everyone involved needs to engage in some serious self-reflection, and I have some suggestions as to the shape that self-reflection should take for each of the major players.President Clinton needs to do some soul searching, if he has not already. He needs to ask himself what things are really most important to him. He needs to ask himself whether he is an addict, and if so whether he wants to get some treatment.