Regarding Cheney's efforts to deny his Halliburton ties... [View All]

[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.