Two months after being nominated to head the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, Lester Crawford resigned. He has now been charged with conflict of interest and lying about stock he owned.

Senior employees of the FDA are prohibited from owning stock in companies they regulate. But why should a rule like that stop a Bush appointee?

According to the New York Times, he was told to sell stock he owned in a dozen companies when he became a deputy commissioner in 2002.

He sold stock in drug companies Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Medtronic and Boston Scientific but kept his shares of food companies Sysco and Pepsico, and Kimberly-Clark.

He also owned options in several drug companies, which he exercised in 2003., which he was then already regulating.

Those transactions were reported on his income tax returns but not in his federal disclosure filings.

The former Bush official is charged with two misdemeanors that could each bring a year in prison.

OK, so it's not as glamorous as a sex scandal. But the golden rule in the Bush regime has always been "Follow the Money!"