By George Friedman There are three rules concerning political scandal in the United States. First, every administration has scandals. Second, the party in opposition will always claim that there has never been an administration as corrupt as the one currently occupying the White House. Three, two is almost never true. It is going to be tough for any government to live up to the Grant or Harding administrations for financial corruption, or the Nixon and Lincoln administrations for political corruption — for instance, was Lincoln's secretary of war really preparing a coup d'etat before the president's assassination? And sex scandals — Clinton is not the gold standard. Harding was having sex with his mistress in the Oval Office — and no discussion was possible over whether it was actually sex. Andrew Jackson's wife was unfairly accused of being a prostitute. Grover Cleveland had an illegitimate child.