Top 10 Scandals of 2007

By Elisabeth Salemme

#1. Firings Fallout

It's true that federal appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. But the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, seven in December 2006, prompted a Congressional investigation and helped lead to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Critics contend some of the attorneys — six of whom had recently received outstanding job-performance ratings — were fired as retribution for prosecuting Republicans or for failing to prosecute Democrats. In July, President Bush invoked executive privilege and declared that Karl Rove and other aides would not testify on the matter if subpoenaed by Congress. It remains unclear who ordered the firings or why.

#2. Star Athlete Dogged by Animal Cruelty

Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who was the NFL's first draft pick in 2001, was suspended indefinitely from the league in August after he admitted to funding a dogfighting ring on his property and to being complicit in the killing of at least six dogs using such methods as hanging and drowning. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell freed the Falcons to recover $22 million of Vick's signing bonus, but has yet to decide whether to reinstate him after his incarceration ends. "I'm totally responsible," Vick said at a press conference. "Dogfighting is a terrible thing." On Dec. 10, he was sentenced to 23 months in jail.

#3. Shock Jock Cold-Cocked

Don Imus is no stranger to racist and sexist humor, but he crossed the line in April when he called Rutgers' mostly black women's basketball team "nappy headed hos." Although he initially dismissed the incident as "some idiot comment meant to be amusing," he soon apologized publicly amid mounting criticism and even met privately with the Rutgers team. But as several advertisers pulled out of deals with his CBS radio show and its MSNBC simulcast, both networks fired him. Imus settled his $40 million wrongful termination suit against CBS in August and in December returned to the air on ABC.

#4. Have TB, Will Travel

Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker flew to Europe two days after being diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis. While in Italy, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) informed the honeymooner — whose father-in-law is a TB expert at the agency — that he had an extensively drug-resistant strain of the disease and that his name was being placed on a no-fly list. Speaker somehow managed to fly from Prague to Montreal and drive to New York City, where he was placed under federal isolation. A border-patrol agent was fired for failing to detain the newlywed, who was later found to have a more treatable strain of TB than the CDC had believed.

#5. Who's Her Daddy?

After Anna Nicole Smith — the former Playboy Playmate of the Year and Guess-jeans model, perhaps best known for marrying a billionaire octogenarian — died in February of an accidental overdose, speculation intensified over who had fathered her baby daughter, Dannielynn, who stands to inherit big bucks if Smith's estate wins a decade-long battle over her late husband's fortune. Although Smith's attorney, Howard K. Stern, was listed as Dad on the birth certificate, several other men claimed to be the father. In April, after a media spectacle that included a judge weeping in court, DNA evidence confirmed that Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead had sired the wee lass. Said the proud papa: "I told you so."

#6. The NBA's Dirty Ref

Blame it on his gambling addiction. Veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy resigned in July just before word spread that the FBI was investigating him for betting on games — including some he officiated — during the past four years. In August, Donaghy admitted that since December 2006, he had been paid by gambling associates for correctly predicting which team would win a particular game. He also passed along such insider tips as which players were injured. NBA commissioner David Stern called the Donaghy affair "the worst situation" he had experienced in 40 years with the league. Donaghy pleaded guilty and could face up to 25 years in prison.

#7. NASA Love Triangle

It was definitely the diapers. When Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando in February and accused of trying to kidnap a fellow astronaut's girlfriend, police found a steel mallet, knife, latex gloves and rubber tubing in her car, but what vaulted her into the upper stratosphere of infamy was the diapers she reportedly told police she used to reduce the number of pit stops on her 900-mile drive from Houston. (She now denies wearing the diapers.) Nowak, who pleaded not guilty, was dismissed from the astronaut corps as was her former paramour. Her trial is ongoing.

#8. A Legacy of Steroids

For years Marion Jones denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and even went so far as to sue an accuser for defamation. But in October, the track superstar admitted she had lied about her steroid use to federal investigators, the same ones who a month later brought perjury charges against baseball's career home-run leader Barry Bonds. "I have betrayed your trust," Jones said at a press conference. "I have let my country down." She returned the five medals she won in Sydney to the International Olympic Committee, which nullified her results and asked her relay team members to return their medals as well.

#9. Dog in the Doghouse

The A&E network halted production of its hit reality show, Dog the Bounty Hunter, after star Duane "Dog" Chapman was caught repeatedly using a racial slur. According to Chapman's lawyer, Chapman's son sold The National Enquirer a recording of his father telling him to break up with his African-American girlfriend. "It's not because she's black," Chapman says on the tape. "It's because we use the word 'n-----' sometimes here, and I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything ... because" — and we'll paraphrase here — an African-American person heard us use the slur "and turned us in to the Enquirer." Oh, the irony!

#10. High School Nudity

Disney's High School Musical is a mega-hit among tweens and teens, so its star Vanessa Hudgens was in a bit of a pickle when a nude photo of her hit the Internet in September. In a statement, Hudgens said she felt "embarrassed over the situation" and that she "regrets having ever taken these photos." A Disney Channel spokesperson responded, in a separate statement, by saying, "We hope she's learned a valuable lesson." Despite speculation that the then-18-year-old singer would be dropped from future installments of the High School Musical movies, in November Hudgens said, "we're all on board" for High School Musical 3.


Source: TIME