When George W. Bush prepared to move to the White House for his first term as US President, the place was a mess. The Government Accounting Office reported that Executive Office staff, some of whom had been there 30 years, used words such as “extremely filthy” or “trashed out” to describe the conditions they had observed, and that office space contained a “malodorous stench” or looked liked there had been a party.
The mess was described as “pranks” by the previous occupants, who left vulgar graffiti derogatory to the incoming administration, voice mail announcements that had been changed to answer…