E-Mail Boosts Calls to Probe Halliburton, Cheney

More on the fast breaking vice presidential scandal from Reuters courtesy of Eschaton:

A newly unearthed Pentagon e-mail about Halliburton contracts in Iraq prompted fresh calls on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for probes into whether Vice President Dick Cheney helped his old firm get the deals.

The e-mail, reported by Time magazine, provided "clear evidence" of a relationship between Cheney and multibillion-dollar contracts Halliburton has received for rebuilding Iraq, Sen. Patrick Leahy said.

"It totally contradicts the vice president's previous assertions of having no contact" with federal officials about Halliburton's Iraq deals, Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a conference call set up by John Kerry's presidential campaign. "It would be irresponsible not to hold hearings."

The March 2003 Pentagon e-mail says action on a no-bid Halliburton contract to rebuild Iraq's oil industry was "coordinated" with Cheney's office. Cheney was chief executive officer of the oilfield services giant from 1995 until he joined George W. Bush's presidential ticket in 2000.

New Jersey's Sen. Frank Lautenberg, another Democrat, urged the chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, to subpoena e-mails and any other evidence of contacts between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Cheney's office on Halliburton's Iraq contracts.

"The revelation that the Vice President's office was involved in the awarding of this contract ... makes the need for an investigation essential," Lautenberg wrote to Collins.

Cheney's office denied over the weekend that it had any role in the Halliburton contracts, and a senior adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign, Mary Matalin, repeated this on Tuesday.

Click here for the rest.

Note that both the VP and the Pentagon are in bigtime denial mode, but they're still not offering any explanation of how "coordinated" means something other than "coordinated." Why not? Obviously, because they don't have anything ready: this whole email flap sounds like it caught old heartless Cheney with his pants down. Okay, Democrats in Congress, it's time to take advantage of our bottomless Vice President--bend him over and...well, you know what to do. If not, go ask Barney Frank--he'll tell ya.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$