Hm, even if not exectly at Greek levels, I'd say cronyism and corruption flourished at federal US level before Bush, too. (Not to mention state and city level, if poemless is to be believed. And not to mention the fact that the way lobbying and corporate campaign finance was/is a legal pastime in the US, corruption and cronyism were effectively legalised.)

Though, for Greek conditions, perhaps the better US parallel is the post-Civil-War period: that was thorough and lasted for decades.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}