Timeline
January 6, 2005
Senate Judiciary Committee considers nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales for attorney general. He says human rights violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Guantanamo are not due to administration policy but to "a failure in training and oversight." Asked whether U.S. personnel would not be bound by the War Crimes Act, he says, "I don't believe that would be the case, but I would like to have the opportunity to get back to you on that."
January 10, 2005
In opening statements, Cpl. Graner's attorney argues that piling detainees into a naked pyramid was about control and not abuse. "Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year?" he asked. "Is that torture?"
January 14, 2005
Cpl. Graner is found guilty and tells court, "A lot of what I did there was wrong. A lot of it was criminal." His 10-year sentence is toughest handed down.
January 15, 2005
The British Museum reports vast amounts of earth containing tens of thousands of archaeological fragments have been bulldozed into piles to fill up sandbags. Defensive trenches have been dug right through remains. A 2,600-year-old brick pavement has been reduced to dust by tracked military vehicles. Someone has even tried to gouge out the decorated bricks that form part of the dragons on the priceless Ishtar Gate.
January 26, 2005
James Dale Guckert, using the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, gains national attention during a White House news conference when he asks Bush a question some in the press corps consider "so friendly it might have been planted." "Gannon" represents the website Talon News, a virtual front for conservative activist group GOPUSA. Gannon comes under public scrutiny for his lack of a journalistic background prior to his work with Talon and his alleged involvement with various homosexual escort service websites using the professional name "Bulldog".
January 28, 2005
A syndicated newspaper columnist received at least $4,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services for work in support of President Bush's effort to promote marriage, USA Today reports. Mike McManus is the third commentator known to receive money from a federal agency to boost Bush policy initiatives. News of the McManus contract follows the disclosure that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher was being paid $21,500 by HHS to push the White House's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage. Columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to plug Mr. Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation.
February 2, 2005
By a vote of 60-36, the Senate confirms Alberto Gonzales.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist suggests that Republicans will deploy the so-called "go nuclear" option to prevent Democrats from using filibusters to block controversial judicial nominations.
April 8, 2005
Gen. Karpinski is relieved of command of the 800th MP Brigade. A month later, Bush approves her demotion to colonel.
May 5, 2005
The Bush Administration announces plans to overturn the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
May 13, 2005
Bush Administration issues final regulation repealing the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and replacing it with a state petition process.
May 16, 2005
Bush appoints Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. The Washington Post reports the nomination is "met with much surprise, little enthusiasm and some outright opposition in Europe, where he is best known as a leading proponent of a conflict deeply unpopular here, the Iraq war." Wolfowitz will resign two years later in a scandal over the transfer of his girlfriend, a World Bank employee, to a lucrative Pentagon post.
Senate minority leader Harry Reid breaks off talks with his Republican counterpart, Bill Frist, on efforts to head off a showdown on judicial nominations, saying he cannot consent to Republican demands. Frist's position is that all judicial nominees must have an up-or-down vote on the floor, and he has proposed allowing up to 100 hours of debate on nominees and eliminating some committee practices that Republicans used in the Clinton era to block nominees.
May 24, 2005
June 22, 2005
The Washington Post calls "influence peddling" the new growth industry: "The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy." Republican control of Congress is cited as a major factor.
July 20, 2005
Bush nominates John Roberts, Jr. as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
August 1, 2005
Having failed to receive approval for the nomination from the Senate, Bush makes a temporary recess appointment making John Bolton the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for the next 16 months.
Democrats and one Republican, Sen. George V. Voinovich (Ohio), opposed Bolton's confirmation because of concerns raised by some former colleagues, who described him as an abrasive bully who sought to remove people who got in his way.
August 10, 2005
Bush signs a $286 billion highway spending bill, after having threatened a veto because it exceeded his announced spending limit by $30 billion. Among the projects included: A $223 million bridge between two scantily-populated sites in Alaska, home of long-time Republican Senator Ted Stevens.
August 27, 2005
President Bush's weekly radio address makes no mention of Hurricane Katrina.
August 28, 2005
In a videoconference attended by an unresponsive President Bush, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield expresses concern that Katrina might push its storm surge over the city's levees and flood walls.
August 29, 2005
FEMA Director Michael Brown waits five hours after Katrina has hit to ask his boss, Michael Chertoff, for 1000 Homeland Security employees to be sent to the region and gives them two days to arrive. Brown urges emergency responders "not to respond to hurricane impact areas unless dispatched by state, local authorities."
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson offers National Guard troops to help with the Katrina effort. Richardson later complains that his offer of help went unanswered for two days until Washington finally gave orders to move the troops, who were flown to the hurricane zone the next day.
August 30, 2005
President Bush delivers a speech in San Diego on the 60th anniversary of V-J Day. President begins speech with brief remarks on hurricane relief efforts, tells audience, "The federal, state and local governments are working side-by-side to do all we can to help people get back on their feet." Remainder of the speech is dedicated to the need to "stay the course" in Iraq.
Late Tuesday, DHS Secretary Chertoff declares Katrina an Incident of National Significance, "triggering for the first time a coordinated federal response to states and localities overwhelmed by disaster." Declaration is first use of DHS National Response Plan.
August 31, 2005
President Bush
heads back to Washington from vacationing in Crawford, TX. Though he does not land in Louisiana, Air Force One flies over the Gulf Coast so that he can view the devastation.
September 1, 2005
In an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, Bush says, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
The suburban Chicago Daily Herald reports that House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert says rebuilding New Orleans "doesn't make sense to me."
FEMA announces guidelines to contractors interested in "doing business with FEMA during the Hurricane Katrina recovery."
On NPR's "All Things Considered," Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff claims, ""I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water."
On Nightline, Michael Brown tells Ted Koppel, "We just learned of the convention center--we being the federal government--today."
September 2, 2005
While visiting Mobile, Alabama, Bush says to FEMA Director Michael Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Bush adds, "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house...he's lost his entire house ...there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
September 3, 2005
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declares that Katrina constituted "a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight." CNN reports that "government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years."
September 4, 2005
Jefferson Parrish president Aaron Broussard claims on Meet the Press that aid to his parrish was blocked by FEMA.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the USS Bataan, a large navy ship positioned close to New Orleans, is "underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort," with its 600 beds and six medical operating rooms empty. The Tribune notes that the ship's 1,200 sailors have not been asked to join the relief effort.
September 5, 2005
The AP reports that Kellogg Brown & Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton Co that has been criticized for its reconstruction work in Iraq, has begun work on a $500 million U.S. Navy contract for emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and marine facilities that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
While touring the Astrodome, Former First Lady Barbara Bush tells American Public Media's "Marketplace" program:"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."
September 8, 2005
Citing a "national emergency," Bush suspends the Davis-Bacon Act--requiring the paying of prevailing wages for public-works projects--in storm-ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
September 12, 2005
Michael Brown resigns as director of FEMA, three days after losing his on-site command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
September 14, 2005
September 28, 2005
A Texas grand jury indicts House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on a charge of criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington. DeLay steps aside as majority leader.
October 3, 2005
President Bush nominates Harriet Meiers to the Supreme Court. Meiers, a lawyer and crony of Bush's from Texas, with no judicial experience, has served Bush as White House Counsel. Conservatives who just months earlier had been demanding an up-or-down vote on every one of Bush's nominees raise such a furor over Meiers' lack of verifiable pro-life credentials that her nomination never makes it to the floor.
October 6, 2005
Bush threatens to veto provision, authored by Sen. John McCain, banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of detainees; administration pushes for an exemption for CIA. McCain eventually caves.
October 12, 2005
Karpinski publishes a memoir, One Woman's Army. She blames contractors and her military and civilian superiors, including Rumsfeld, for the abuse.
October 31, 2005
Bush nominates Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings on Alito's confirmation, slammed Bush's decision as pandering to his conservative base.
November 2005
Senior Air Force officers steer a controversial $50 million contract a company that barely exists in an effort to reward a recently retired four-star general and a millionaire civilian pilot who had grown close to senior Air Force officials and the Thunderbirds.
November 2, 2005
December 2, 2005