Ethics violations flying around Capitol Hill today, it's good to remember these things have a history. And it ain't always Democrats.

Take for example, Sherman Adams, former Governor of New Hampshire and Assistant to President Eisenhower. Adams wielded an incredible amount of power in the Eisenhower White House, influencing decisions by influencing which people had access to Ike and which ones didn't. Rumors began circulating that Adams had been involved in intervening on certain investigations involving the FCC and the Civil Aeronautics Board.

But the straw came in the form of a Vicuna coat, which Adams was said to have received in exchange for favors from Bernard Goldfine, a textile manufacturer and campaign contributor to Adams as well as numerous personal gifts/loans (and a house in D.C. shortly after his appointment).

As the scandal gained speed, and revelations of loans, gifts and favors continued to surface, Eisenhower could no longer keep Adams in his role as Assistant to The President, especially since it was an election year and the scandal could create damage to some key elections.

Sherman Adams: “Several months ago a committee of the House of Representatives started hearings designed to illicit information as to whether or not any person or persons had exerted improper influence upon the regulatory agencies of the Government. In the course of these hearings I testified before that committee. The sworn testimony that I then gave, together with that of every responsible official of whom the committee made inquiry, clearly established that I had never influenced nor attempted to influence any agency or officer or employee of any agency, in any case, decision or matter whatsoever. Despite the fact that this testimony is wholly undisputed, a calculated and contrived effort has nevertheless been made to attack and to discredit me.”

So Adams resigned on September 22, 1958 and quickly faded into the woodwork until his death in 1986.

And the Ethics scandals just keep on comin'.