They Are All Slimeballs

[Utah]

Did anyone see the story on NBC Nightly News about all the contracts being awarded in Iraq to those with "influence" in the government? Both the Republicans and Democrats are just a bunch of f@$#$%.

In case you missed the story. All these new firms are starting up and they hire Washington insiders who basically land them huge contracts (often at the expense of very established firms that dont have the connections). No open bidding process at all and it is a cut and dried case of war profiteering. Actually its worse because the government is basically giving mega-million dollar handouts to "friends".

It all makes you want to puke.

Note this is not a Republican slam as both parties are trying to do the same thing.

[adios]

I read something about this today. I'll try to get to the bottom of it. Don't fly off the handle yet though as NBC Nightly News isn't my idea of a reliable source.

[Utah]

NBC news is certainly left leaning and they like to stick it to Republicans. However, during the piece they asked the partner of Bob Livingston's firm whether it was wrong to peddle influence the way their firm was doing it. His comment was basically, "well, thats the way the game is played".

Its not just the NBC story, I also thought the National Review Online's defense of Halliburton to be completely without merit (and I really like the NRO, so I even tend to give them the benefit of the doubt).

[ACPlayer]

Here's some thing that supports your allegations. Sen Collins criticizing the Bush Admin.

Something Fishy about 'No-Bid' Contracts for Iraq Reconstruction? (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&e=11&u=/oneworld/20031010/wl_oneworld/4536701541065788844)

Extract:

When Susan Collins was just a staffer in the United States Senate, she used to worry about fat government contracts being awarded in secret. Now Collins is a US Senator--and she can finally do something about it.


Senator Collins is drawing a bead on contracts in Iraq, where the US has begun pouring in billions of dollars to repair war damage and rebuild the country. There are charges in the press that no-bid contracts are squandering taxpayer funds.


"A tremendous amount of money will be spent on contracts to rebuild Iraq," says the soft-spoken Maine senator, a leading GOP moderate. She wants Washington to avoid even the appearance of cronyism or war profiteering in these deals. "We have an obligation to make sure that money is not being wasted," Collins says.


Yet some key Iraq contracts already were bid secretly, or on a sole-source basis, to companies with strong ties to the Bush administration. These included a $1.39 billion contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton, an energy giant formerly chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites).
Another $680 million contract for Iraq's power grid, water system, and airport facilities went to Bechtel Group Inc., after a secret bidding process. Together, the six companies invited to bid on the Bechtel contract contributed $3.6 million to federal election campaigns, two-thirds to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.