TILTING AT WAX MEN

Halliburton: The Bush/Iraq Scandal that Wasn't: The president's critics come up empty. (Byron York, July 9, 2003, National Review)

On March 24, Halliburton, the giant energy-services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, announced that a subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had signed a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers to put out oil fires in Iraq, as well as to evaluate and repair the Iraqi oil infrastructure. The announcement set off an angry reaction in some circles on Capitol Hill. On March 26, California Democratic representative Henry Waxman wrote a letter to the Corps demanding to know why the contract was signed "without any competition or even notice to Congress." On April 8, Waxman, joined by Democratic representative John Dingell, requested a General Accounting Office investigation, writing that "ties" between Cheney and Halliburton "have raised concerns about whether the company has received favorable treatment from the administration." On April 10, Waxman wrote the Corps again, demanding more information. More Waxman letters followed on April 16, May 6, and June 6.

Liberal voices in the press followed Waxman's lead. Writing in the Washington Post, columnist Michael Kinsley called the Halliburton contract "nation-building, Republican-style, with huge contracts awarded in secret to politically connected companies." The New York Times editorialized that the contract "looks like naked favoritism" and "undermines the Bush administration's portrayal of the war as a campaign for disarmament and democracy, not lucre."

One element missing from all the criticism was a serious examination of what the Halliburton contract actually involved and how it came to be signed. For example, was it really reached without competition, as Waxman charged? As it turns out, the evidence that is publicly available (some of it remains classified) suggests that Waxman's accusations are misleading at best and flat wrong at worst. It appears not only that there was not "naked favoritism" at work in the Halliburton contract, but that the Corps of Engineers, and the Bush administration, acted reasonably and properly in awarding the contract - no matter what Waxman says. [...]

The problem, from Henry Waxman's perspective, is that the investigation will likely show that both the government and Halliburton/KBR acted properly. Such a conclusion won't help Waxman's ongoing campaign to suggest that there is something inherently corrupt in the relationship between the Bush administration and Halliburton. Nor is the New York Times likely to editorialize about it. But if the president's critics really want the truth, they'll have to accept the results of the investigations they have demanded.

Realistically, how many companies in the world can do this kind of work and how stupid would one of the handful have to be to not employ Republican lobbyists and other executives? If Democrats want to share the wealth why not start their own petroleum services company? I bet the GOP would even give them drilling rights in ANWAR... Posted by Orrin Judd at July 10, 2003 10:36 PM