I don’t know the background on this, and I am linking to John Conyers blog, so take this with a grain of salt, but it doesn’t seem to me that this is the sort of things Republicans should vote against more than once:
But yesterday, the House Republicans suprised even me when they voted in near lock step against prohibiting companies from defrauding our government with regard to Iraq War reconstruction. At the end of the debate of a broad crime bill concerning gangs and many, many other issues, Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) offered a final amendment (referred to as a “motion to recommit”) to prohibit war contract fraud. The Republicans voted it down, on a 198-227 basis, with only two Republicans voting to do the right thing. Amazingly, the GOP didn’t even bother to explain why they were against the measure — they basically just said they were against gang violence and that was it — nothing about the Haliburton overcharges or the War.
Granted, this was just an addition to the hideous gang bill with its insane expansion of mandatory minimum, and as such it should be recognized that it was probably just an attempt to kill the bill, but I would caution the GOP to be seen as defending war profiteering.
Smart Republicans would, today, initiate the motion as an independent piece of legislation. People running companies who intentionally defraud the government in a time of war deserve hard time. Hell, they deserve to be put in the public square where they can be flogged and spit upon by the soldiers they are screwing over. Then the rest of us should get out chance.
Kimmitt
I would caution the GOP to be seen as defending war profiteering.
That would require, say, CNN to be willing to discuss the issue for any length of time. However, there is an attractive white girl missing somewhere in the United States, and well, other things just aren’t as important.