Halliburton is in Katrina's trough

2005-09-16-ivins.html: "It’s an ill wind that blows no one good, so we should not be surprised to learn the first winner out of the gate on Hurricane Katrina is none other than the Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has already been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of Katrina.

Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Dick Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed — $194,852 last year.

But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts — that, friends, goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of — of all things — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who was President Bush’s campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give generously to the Republican Party.
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