"Republicans to Rip Apart Democrats' Old Offices"

Reminds me of Clinton aides exiting the Whitehouse. Childish.

That was no myth. Bush actually supressed the details because he didn't want (the press) to dwell on his predacessor.

I do not believe the Whitehouse trashing was fabricated. I do believe it was embelished.

If you have evidence to the contrary I'd be very interested. A 5 second Google search turned up nothing definitive.

The final, official report from the Government Accounting Office was released on June 11, 2002. The 220 page document says there was damage, although not as much as some of the early reports had suggested. The GAO says the damage included 62 missing computer keyboards, 26 cell phones, two cameras, ten antique doorknobs and several presidential medallions and office signs. The damage estimate was about $20,000. Clinton critics say the report proves that the departing Clinton staff members acted recklessly and disrespectfully. Clinton supporters say the report shows that the allegations of vandalism were exaggerated and that there were similar incidents when Clinton took over the White House from the staff of George Bush.

The GAO report concludes that even though damage was verified and that some of it appeared to have been intentional, there was not clear evidence of who was responsible for it.

The technological problems the vandals wrought were so severe that, according to a report in the New York Daily News, "a telecommunications staffer with more than a quarter-century of service was seen sobbing."

"Phone lines cut, drawers filled with glue, door locks jimmied so that arriving Bush staff got locked inside their new offices," a disapproving Andrea Mitchell reported on NBC News. The message seemed clear: The trailer-trash Clintons and their staff had enjoyed one last bacchanal at taxpayer expense.

Now it seems those closely detailed stories were largely bunk. Last week it was revealed that a formal review by the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative agency, "had found no damage to the offices of the White House's East or West Wings or EOB" and that Bush's own representatives had reported "there is no record of damage that may have been deliberately caused by the employees of the Clinton administration."

While cautious GSA staffers won't issue a blanket exoneration of the Clinton team, Bernard Ungar, the agency's director of physical infrastructure, told Salon the media clearly exaggerated the extent of the damage. According to the terse GSA statement that formed the basis of Ungar's conclusion, "the condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy."

Leading the cry against the trashing of the White House was the Fox News Channel. Virtually every major Fox personality reported it as fact, often expressing their own personal outrage. Guests on the channel chimed in, condemning the Clintons and their staffers. Consider the following reports:

Now the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US Congress, has taken the wind out of Bush administration allegations that Clinton officials trashed the White House before turning it over to the Republicans in January of 2001. The GAO issued a 217-page report on June 11 summarizing the results of a year-long investigation into Republican charges of wanton and widespread vandalism. The report concludes that minor and scattered acts of vandalism did occur, putting the total cost at $13,000 to $14,000, but says such damage is typical of recent White House transitions, including that carried out in 1993 by Republican officials in the outgoing administration of the elder George Bush, the father of the current president.