Why didn't the Democrats make Iraq corruption, indeed. The entire issue is really the most disgusting, obvious, deadly, obscene, sick, grotesque example of corruption in our lives. Possibly in American history.
And, in an issue that got surprisingly little attention around here, it just got worse. The GOP Congress (specifically the House Armed Services Committee) inserted a provision into the 2007 Military Authorization bill that terminated the Office of the Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction. That's Stuart Bowens, the only man specifically charged with investigating the mess in Iraq.
Details and some personal politics below ...
This happened in September, and it was signed into law by Bush a couple of weeks ago. I'll let the NYTimes take it
from here:
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.
And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen's supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.
The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.
It's got the usual MO of House Republicans. Inserted at the last minute? Check. Behind closed doors? Check. Over the objections of Democrats? Check. Only inserted during the Conference Committee process? Check.
It's not like the bill is ambiguous. Here's SEC. 1054(b) of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (heckuva job, Johnny! He's even issuing statements distancing himself from this):
Termination- Section 3001(o) of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004 (Public Law 108-106; 117 Stat. 1238; 5 U.S.C. App., note to section 8G of Public Law 95-452) is amended to read as follows:
`(o) Termination- The Office of the Inspector General shall terminate on October 1, 2007, with transition operations authorized to continue through December 31, 2007.'.
There ya go. Plain language.
And the spin from the GOP is laughable. From the Times:
The idea, Mr. Holly said, was simply to return to a non-wartime footing in which inspectors general in the State Department, the Pentagon and elsewhere would investigate American programs overseas. The definite termination date was also seen as helpful for planning future oversight efforts from Bush administration agencies, he said.
Return to a non-wartime footing? So the war's over! Yippee! Did I miss the parade and the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square?
And that second sentence, that it is "helpful for planning future oversight" ... I bet it is.
Halliburton staffer: That Iraq Inspector is asking us for some documents. He's looking into something else.
Halliburton attorney: Eh, I'll just stall him. His office is closing in a few months.
Halliburton staffer: Cool.
Now, if the Democrats had made Iraq corruption an issue, this would be leading the news cycle this weekend, knocking the GOP further on the defensive and putting a clear, easy-to-understand example of GOP corruption center-stage for the low-information voters that are deciding now. It would depress GOP turnout and boost Democratic turnout.
As many of you know, I work for Bob Johnson, the Democratic candidate in NY-23. Bob cares deeply about this issue, and he has made this a central issue in his campaign, sending out numerous press releases and doing a number of press events around this issue. He's been calling for the creation of a Truman Committee-style Special Committee for the purpose of investigating these abuses. It hasn't been easy making this an issue without the rhetorical support of national Democrats, but he's been doing it and getting a good response.
And our opponent, John McHugh, not only has been using the office of the Special Inspector to justify his votes against a Special Committee, he also serves on the House Armed Services Committee! It's his committee that worked to terminate the very office he's been using to justify his actions about corruption in Iraq. A more clear example of corrupt policy married with misleading rhetoric would be hard to design. Politically speaking for Bob, this is a case of doing well by doing good.
Because, frankly, we're on the side of the angels here. This Iraq corruption is so heinous, something must be done about it. Bob's stance on this and energy in pushing it has been one of the things I've been most proud of during the campaign. People are dying over this corruption, and the GOP Congress has been playing grotesque political games over it. And now, right before an election, they brazenly vote to end the one office even partially responsible for investigating the abuses.
Shocking, in a way. But oh so typical for The People's House under the GOP.
update:I should mention one thing about that office: it's not enough even if they kept it. The office is only set up to look at "reconstruction" money, and the bulk of the money spent over there is on "security." So his office, even with all the stuff it's finding, still can't look at most of the money and most of the contracts. So the Congress still needs to do its job and create a Special Committee to investigate the corruption. We shouldn't allow a re-authorization of this office (if it were to happen) to placate us on the issue of corruption in Iraq.