Cross osted at Turn Maine Blue
From senate2008guru we learn that despite repeated requests from other members of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, then chair Susan Collins refused to call even one hearing into widely reported theft, fraud, cost-overuns and abuses in Iraq. What is even more galling is Collins own claim how "concerned" she is about no-bid contracts.
Then, there is the issue of no-bid contracts and war profiteering. As it is Susan Collins' re-election cycle, she has paid lip service to expressing concern about this issue. She has even gotten some press by talking tough on the issue. But what is the real story on Susan Collins and war profiteering? Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has on several occasions - not once, not twice, not thrice, but at least four times - urged Collins to hold hearings on Halliburton's no-bid contracts in Iraq. And what was Susan Collins' response?
Susan Collins, who disingenuously talks tough on no-bid contracts and war profiteering, won't bother to provide Senate oversight on Halliburton's contracts because the GAO and Pentagon are already poking around, allowing her to abdicate her responsibilities as Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She was flat-out unwilling to do her job. And why? To protect the corporate cronies of the Bush-Cheney administration.
You can find the letters from Sen. Lautenberg here, here, here, and here.
For four years Collins chaired this committee and yet did nothing, aboslutely nothing, to recoup money - our tax dollars - that have been squandered. How many hundreds of millions of dollars has been lost, never to be seen again? How could these monies have been spent here at home, beginning with post-Katrina reuilding efforts?
And when will any of the local news media begin to ask these and other questions?
Tom Allen for Senate