Gavin was the guy who proudly accepted an invitation to the CIA
Seeing as you were not around at the time, you may not realize that at the time Gavin visited the CIA, the future of Bitcoin was nowhere near an assured thing. Many in the community felt that any attention from any quarter would be a good thing. Are you insinuating that Gavin had ulterior motives in accepting the invitation? Do you think he engineered the invitation? What motives do you posit? What negatives came out of this visit?
And before you spout that this act drove Satoshi out (a view I have had articulated by several), then why would Satoshi left such a nemesis in charge of the project?
and other highly questionable governmental bodies
Insert list here, please:
1)
2)
3)
.
.
.
around the time Satoshi left. He also tried to open the door for political influence on Bitcoin development via funding a Bitcoin Foundation...
Gavin's proposal to start the Bitcoin Foundation was expressly in order to:
1) create a mechanism for the funding of Bitcoin development
2) provide a point of contact so that journalists and governmental bodies could get true info on Bitcoin
On #1, yes he directly benefited. But so did Bitcoin as a whole.
On #2, at the time, there were many instances of outright falsehoods in the press, and driving policy. Early actions by BF countered this trend.
In the long run, the BF did indeed devolve into an insiders' boondoggle. However, some of the early work accomplished by BF may have been instrumental in keeping the gov at bay. Perhaps most notably the early senatorial hearings during which Jennifer Shasky Calvery(?) - chief of FinCEN, was led to proclaim that the legitimate uses of cryptocurrency far outweighed the nefarious uses. Regardless, perhaps you can list Gavin's actions on behalf of the BF that set back the cause:
1)
2)
3)
.
.
.
Oh - you got nothing? Unsurprised.