From today's NYTimes Op-Ed:
Cynics Without a Cause
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: November 11, 2003
The riff was laid down by Dennis Kucinich, but now all the candidates are playing along. Howard Dean says the Halliburton contracts show that the Bush administration "has sold this country down the river." John Kerry says the administration has broken faith with the American people with its no-bid contracts with Halliburton. In the parade of Democratic bogeymen, the word "Halliburton" elicits almost as many hisses as the chart-topping "Ashcroft."
The problem with the story is that it's almost entirely untrue. As Daniel Drezner recently established in Slate, there is no statistically significant correlation between the companies that made big campaign contributions and the companies that have won reconstruction contracts. --more--
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/opinion/11BROO.htmlGee, if there's no relation, how do well-connected politicos end up in the top reaches of their corporate structures, not just hard-workn' guys who know their business?
Does anyone at DU have the proper facts in hand to properly debunk this "move along, nothing to see here" spin of the day?