I have to agree with Simon -- it's the Chicago Way, the way of Daley and Ryan and Blago. These Illinois politicians don't know any other way to be.

I think this partly explains why Pelosi and Obama seem incapable of admitting the reality that the GOP is taking the House -- they're deeply worried that when the investigations start, this White House is going to look very dirty, far worse than Nixon's cover-up or Clinton's sexual and financial escapades.

I was looking at the Gallup graph of approval ratings for U.S. presidents today and I was struck by the fact nearly all of them could be called "failed." Truman? Failed so badly he didn't run again. Same for LBJ. Nixon, Ford, Carter? Failures. Bush I -- failed to win re-election. Bush II exited with very low approval.

The only Presidents who can make much claim to success are Reagan, Eisenhower, and Clinton (who never received 50% of the vote, and was notably impeached for lying under oath about an adulterous affair with an intern after calling her mentally ill until his DNA was found on her clothing). JFK can, at least, lay claim to not having failed, by dint of not surviving long enough.

This, perhaps, explains why John F Kennedy and Reagan are so revered: it has been so rare in the modern era that a Presidency has not failed.