A Short Walk Through Teapot Dome

The little green house on K street.

I recently read Laton McCartney's The Teapot Dome Scandal. I found a copy at Platt library and read it over the course of a few days. My fascination with the general time period ranging from 1850 - 1950 began with a fateful interaction with a Twitter mutual over the topic of Herbert Hoover, his accomplishments, and his legacy. At his recommendation, I picked up Kenneth Whyte's Herbert Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Next thing you know, here I am, reading through a retelling of American politics's juciest scandal and the first administration to ever see a Cabinet member off to jail.

I was perplexed by the randomness of it all. How the unassuming Ohio Senator Harding was catapulted to the presidency on the account of oil tycoons. How Jake Hamon was merked by his mistress (??) before Harding's inauguration. How Fall, interested in being Harding's Secretary of State became Secretary of the Interior. How a Roosevelt son ended up caught in this mess. Denby signing over the naval reserves. Doheny killing his son (maybe?). The black bag. Stackelbeck, Bonfils, and John Leo Stack. How bipartisan the calls to stop the hearings were. How little everyone cared about it. How at long last it came unraveled. Senator Thomas Walsh. Doheny and Sinclair walking free. Standard Oil Indiana. Upgrades to the Three Rivers ranch in New Mexico. Nosy investigative newspaper journalists. How no 'friend' of Fall's came to his rescue after concluding he was screwed.

And how a 100 years later, scandal is so frequent that no. one. cares.