Update: Bowen went after Parsons, Inc. "for work so shoddy in the construction of police academy barracks that raw sewage leaked through ceilings onto recruits." Parsons is a big Davis donor. Now Davis is going after Bowen.Tom Davis is owed great favors, and great campaign contributions, from Iraq War profiteers. Davis prevented any investigation on Iraq profiteering during the War and left a big mess for Henry Waxman to clean up.
But Davis is pushing for one investigation: Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, whose investigations of waste and corruption in Iraq have repeatedly embarrassed the Bush administration. Bowen is now under investigation himself.
Davis wants to make sure Bowen is too busy with this sideshow to run for office in Virginia.
HT to No dictator needed also at DailyKos, and to the NYTimes. WaPo, scooped again in your own backyard!
[T]he investigations are coming to light just a few months after Mr. Bowen's office narrowly escaped what amounted to a termination clause tucked away in a large military authorization bill by staff members of another Republican congressman. A bipartisan group of lawmakers later managed to reverse that provision, but the latest action has renewed suspicions that Mr. Bowen - a Republican himself - has come to be seen as a serious political liability by his own party.
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Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Maine Republican who led the effort to preserve Mr. Bowen's office last year, said in statement that Mr. Bowen had "proven to be a crucial watchdog"
...
A spokesman for the majority side of the Government Reform Committee, whose chairman is Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, ...
"At this point, there isn't any way to know whether there are credible allegations against Stuart Bowen or just frivolous attacks... What is clear is that he has done a superb job uncovering waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq."
See also: Crooks and Liars: http://www.crooksand...
The Green Miles: http://thegreenmiles...
Troops, Tom Davis supports you until you have a brain injury from an IED. Then he hopes you're not allowed to vote any more.
PARSONS CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE gave Davis $11,000 according to www.fec.gov
Parsons PAC also gave generously to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $5,000 every March since the Iraq War began in 2003, for a total of $20,000.
Davis's wife hires herself out for ICG Government to help witnesses prepare testimony for his Committee. Davis got her the job with his friend Don Upson. Hiring her is a potential conflict of interest - if not an actual conflict - that goes on anyway. Witnesses know paying her can't hurt their chances for softball questions from him.
Parsons also gave to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but only one-tenth of what the NRCC got, and only starting in December 2005 when it became evident that Davis, the Committee Chair, was losing his majority rule. Parsons gave no money to incoming Reform Committee chair Henry Waxman."
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"Davis is said to fear that Bowen might someday run for Congress himself.
Obviously, all this is bad for Bowen personally: He has had to hire lawyers at his own expense and submit to the waste of his own and his agency's time. Certainly it is bad for taxpayers, the victims of waste, fraud, and abuse.
But may I add: It is also very bad for the White House and the GOP. The White House's inability to reach an expeditious conclusion of these groundless allegations invites cynical doubts. Ditto for the House GOP attacks on Bowen.
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Stuart Bowen has proven himself a devoted public servant. His work has brought some of the worst wrongdoers in the US government to justice. The White House should act decisively to prevent junior officials and nervous congressmen from engaging in personal vendettas that can only embarrass the administration as a whole."
Also here
"The involvement of the sublimely crooked Davis-one of the chief recipients of Jack Abramoff's dirty money and in his own right a shameless peddler of influence-makes me more, not less, suspicious that a political witch-hunt is afoot. Davis is a political hack of the first order. He's the clown who subpoenaed Terri Schiavo. Davis should be trusted about absolutely nothing, particularly in regards to oversight of Pentagon contracts. One of his first acts as the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was to eliminate "Oversight" for the committee's name; and that is how he ran the committee. His refusal to permit oversight hearings on Iraq makes Davis one of the Republicans most responsible for the unfolding debacle there. Now, however, he's investigating the watchdog there. Isn't that just darlin?"