Regarding Cheney's efforts to deny his Halliburton ties...

[Brotherjohn]

... his big excuse for the (very large, and ongoing) deferred payments from Halliburton not counting as conflict of interest is that "he had purchased an insurance policy so he would be paid even if Halliburton failed". (See Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2233-2003Sep25.html)

Well, that's just great for him! If Halliburton goes belly up, Cheney gets paid anyway! The problem is, I don't think the potential conflict of interest here involves Cheney sabotaging Halliburton so that he WON'T make money. The conflict lies in the fact that he'll make out like a bandit if they DO succeed. (and $2B in Iraq contracts sure helps!). Just because he won't LOSE money if Halliburton somehow manages to do so doesn't absolve him of anything.

Besides which, the fact that he has received (and continues to receive) paychecks from them of any kind, under any circumstances, reveals that he blatantly lied when he said he has "severed all my ties with the company" (Meet the Press, Sept. 14th). I think a paycheck probably qualifies as among the more concrete examples of "ties with the company", don't you?

I'm glad to see that a Congressional Report (although not specific to Cheney) confirms that this is conflict of interest. I hope Sen. Lautenberg, who requested the report, runs with this.

[FauxNewsBlues]

1. Cheney is full o crap

He had no business experience before Halliburton. His credentials were being the former head of the defense department, where Halliburton was looking for money.

You have a guy in his 50's, who never earned squat his entire life in the public sector, and for 5 years work he got $35 million, and he needs "deferred compensation?"

Gimme a freaking break. Cheney traded in, and is so freaking greedy, that he still wants more money for his part in getting the Pentagon to spend money they didn't have to use, on Halliburton bloat.

[RichM]

2. Some thoughts on what it means "to have ties with" in GOP-speak.

Cheney does not "have ties with" Halliburton, even though he holds hundreds of thousands of options on their stock, continues to receive huge paychecks from them, & they continue to reap huge no-bid contracts from the federal government.

OTOH, Saddam Hussein "had ties with" Al Qaeda, even though every serious investigation of this claim has demonstrated that no such ties ever existed.

Ignorance is Strength.

[nannygoat]

3. RichM, that point would make an excellent LTTE! n/t

[sangh0]

4. Damn that was good Rich!

D'ya see what you can do when you pick the right target?

[Brotherjohn]

5. More definitions: Conflict of Interest (Repub vs. Dem).

A Democratic President takes legal political donations from a group or groups with which he holds no other connection. His administration backs legislation that could feasibly, in some way, benefit the donor groups interests.

Conflict of Interest? Of course! We heard nothing but rantings about Clinton's alleged conflicts of interest based simply on the fact that he accepted legal campaign contributions from groups that donated because they thought that his policies would be more beneficial to them. (imagine that!)

A Republican Vice President serves as CEO of a corporation for the five years prior to taking office. His administration then awards several contracts amounting to billions of dollars to that corporation (some no-bid), all related to a controversial, unprecedented, pre-emptive war pushed more fervently by that Vice President than anyone else in the administration. All the while, he continues to accept payments from said corporation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Conflict of Interest? Of course not!! How could you even THINK that?! Shut up and stop asking questions!