Secret Service agents assigned to guard the president of the United States aren’t the only faithful servants prepared to “take a bullet” for the chief.

Presidents surround themselves with fanatically loyal staffers, cabinet officers and political insiders, much like former vice-presidential aide “Scooter” Libby. Drawn by the aphrodisiac of power emanating from the Oval Office, they are willing to break the law and lie to protect their boss and further his agenda.

Watergate and Iran-Contra, as well as the recent scandals surrounding the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys, demonstrate the extreme lengths to which these acolytes will go.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who broke Watergate, later authored the book “All the President’s Men” about the scandal.

The title alludes to the coterie of loyalists to President Richard Nixon, who orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to commit break-ins, conduct illegal wiretaps, violate campaign finance laws, launder money, subvert the electoral process, misuse intelligence and police agencies, and obstruct justice.

As the nation’s chief executive, presidents are sworn to uphold and enforce the law. Yet, presidents are also political animals who want to cultivate public support for their programs, promote their party, win re-election and build their historical legacy.

They can sometimes stray from working for the public interest toward promoting their self-interest, imperceptibly crossing into unlawful and covert conduct when their goals cannot be otherwise lawfully and openly attained. This can lead to improprieties which are embarrassing, at best, and indictable, at worst.

No president is willing to risk the political damage of being caught. So when being naughty, a president will act indirectly, through concentric circles of surrogates, distancing himself from the operatives who actually carry out illegal measures on his behalf.

A trustworthy inner circle translates the president’s general wishes (usually expressed verbally so as to leave no tangible evidence) into operational orders. If something goes wrong, the president has “plausible deniability.” He can, with a straight face, say he never ordered anyone to break the law.

In the Capitol, where secrets rarely remain so, the almost inevitable outing of closeted skeletons sends the “president’s men” scurrying to contain the damage. A campaign of denial, cover-up and disinformation usually ensues.

If all else fails, “executive privilege” is asserted.

“President’s men,” even when not implicated in the wrongdoing, typically land in trouble by lying, destroying evidence or obstructing investigations. Then they cross their fingers, hope they won’t get caught, or for presidential pardons or commutations if they do.

Since it’s politically risky for a president to rescue malefactors in high-profile cases, only his closest confidantes are likely to draw a “get-out-of-jail-free” card.

Secrets and lies

Watergate – a complex series of events which began June 17, 1972, when five men secretly hired by Nixon’s re-election campaign committee were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters – ended with the conviction and incarceration of numerous top Nixon administration officials and influential Republicans.

Nixon, revealed by his own taped office conversations to have participated in an attempted cover-up of Watergate, resigned on August 9, 1974 to avoid impeachment. He only escaped criminal prosecution, because he was granted a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford, a greatly unpopular act that cost Ford the 1976 election.

While the Watergate operation was designed to ensure Nixon’s re-election, Iran-Contra was President Ronald Reagan’s effort to circumvent congressional limits on his power for what he felt were worthwhile foreign policy goals.

Starting in 1985, Reagan secretly authorized the sale of sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to Iran, to buy its help in securing the release of American hostages held by Hezbollah kidnappers in Lebanon. Some of the profits from the sale were skimmed to furnish military and logistical support to the “Contras,” a guerrilla movement trying to overthrow the communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

Although carried out through private middlemen and foreign governments for secrecy and a thin veneer of legality, these activities violated the Arms Export Control Act. They also thwarted the intent of Congress, which had enacted restrictions on the use of appropriated funds for intelligence or military assistance to the Contras.

After Iran-Contra was exposed in late 1986, this president’s men shredded documents and prevaricated in the face of congressional and independent counsel investigations.

Reagan and his subordinates fared better than their counterparts in Watergate. Admiral John Poindexter, the national security adviser, and Col. Oliver North, his subordinate, were prosecuted and convicted on a variety of charges relating to the cover-up, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted for lying to the independent counsel but received a presidential pardon. Reagan came under intense criticism, but his immense personal popularity stymied impeachment.

Buck stops where?

It’s been deemed likely the Plame leak was engineered by Vice President Cheney to discredit criticism by her husband, a former ambassador, of the Bush administration’s justification for the war in Iraq. Although not the author of the leak, Libby – Cheney’s faithful underling – got into trouble for fibbing to Congress about its source.

It’s seems increasingly probable, though still unproven, that Gonzalez fired capable U.S. attorneys at the behest of presidential political guru, Karl Rove, for partisan political reasons. While the dismissals were legal, Gonzalez has put himself at risk of prosecution for possibly misleading Congress about the real underlying reasons.

President Harry Truman used to have a sign on his desk in the Oval Office, “The buck stops here.” Some of his successors have seemingly replaced it with one that reads, “The buck stops anywhere but here.”