Toggle Menu

The Contractor Hustle

A few weeks ago I attended a briefing with Sen. Dorgan on contractor waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq. It's kind of weird. It's an open secret. The newspapers report on it. The American public knows about it, but no one seems to be too outraged. Today, Katrina, who's been writing about this for a while, has another dispatch.

I have to say, I honestly don't understand why the Democrats, particularly the Obama campaign don't make a bigger issue of this. Whatever people's feelings about the war itself, (and, let's remember, it's very unpopular), I can't imagine there's tremendous support for a massive transfer of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of large corporations that pad their profits by providing crappy service to the armed forces they're supposed to be serving. Think, for a moment, of what Newt Gingrich would have done with this kind of story if it had been legal services, or welfare agencies. We would never here the end of it.

Also, when Sen. Dorgan proposed a forerunner version of the Webb-McCaskill committee, McCain voted against it. That seems worth an ad, doesn't it?

Chris Hayes

July 8, 2008

A few weeks ago I attended a briefing with Sen. Dorgan on contractor waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq. It’s kind of weird. It’s an open secret. The newspapers report on it. The American public knows about it, but no one seems to be too outraged. Today, Katrina, who’s been writing about this for a while, has another dispatch.

I have to say, I honestly don’t understand why the Democrats, particularly the Obama campaign don’t make a bigger issue of this. Whatever people’s feelings about the war itself, (and, let’s remember, it’s very unpopular), I can’t imagine there’s tremendous support for a massive transfer of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of large corporations that pad their profits by providing crappy service to the armed forces they’re supposed to be serving. Think, for a moment, of what Newt Gingrich would have done with this kind of story if it had been legal services, or welfare agencies. We would never here the end of it.

Also, when Sen. Dorgan proposed a forerunner version of the Webb-McCaskill committee, McCain voted against it. That seems worth an ad, doesn’t it?

Chris HayesTwitterChris Hayes is the Editor-at-Large of The Nation and host of “All In with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC.


Latest from the nation