Politics: Ah, So Gullible

Anybody believing that this new item means Cheney's pals at Halliburton won't be getting rich over the Iraq war needed to check the calendar. You're an April fool, monkey. Here's why.

A huge amoung of USAID work is handed out to teams of contractors. One organization is designated as the primary contractor, and then a team of other corporations are subcontractors. If you were doing something that required, say, both accounting and engineering knowhow, an accounting firm like Ernst and Young might bid on the project partnering with an engineering form like CH2MHill. As the Halliburton spokesperson says clearly, subsidiary KBR "remains a potential subcontractor for this important work." As anybody who has ever met any of the millions of consultants in DC, everybody is a subcontractor to somebody else. In the wildly complicated world of government work, many times subcontractors do all the work but because of a relationship, or a conflict, or a qualifying opportunity, the primary contractor is somebody else, who gets a shaving off the top and then sends the rest of the dough over the sub. Halliburton saw this opportunity to both seem contrite and remove the stink of Cheney's war bringing dollars to the coffers. They'll gladly be subcontractors. Nice.