Ben Fritz of Spinsanity does yeoman’s work in taking apart Bob Scheer’s recent attack on Vice-President Cheney line-by-line:
Two of Scheer’s accusations of “a slimy trail of conflict-of-interest questions” are similarly unfair. First, he points out that while Cheney was Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush, he “conveniently changed the rules restricting private contractors doing work on U.S. military bases, allowing the Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary of his future employer, Halliburton, to receive the first of $2.5 billion in contracts over the next decade.” Conflicts of interest are not retroactive, however. Cheney’s future employment by Haliburton does not constitute evidence linking the two at the time and, thus, creating a conflict of interest.
The term also doesn’t apply to Scheer’s second example. He points out that “When Cheney left to become CEO [of Halliburton], he recruited his Pentagon military aide, Joe Lopez, to become senior vice president in charge of Pentagon dealings, which ultimately formed the most lucrative part of the otherwise ailing company’s business.” Taking a job dealing with the government after leaving public sector work is not a conflict of interest (though some have raised other legitimate questions about the common practice). Conflicts of interest only arise when one has two interests that clash at once, which is not the case in the hiring of Lopez.
I’m really bowled-over by Ben’s patience: when I read this Scheer thing on-line at The Nation, I just rolled my eyes and groaned. Scheer’s so predictable, so loose with the facts, so inclined to the smear, you have to wonder why anybody publishes him anymore. Grow up already, Bob.
An LA Times reader offered a good suggestion about Scheer’s column:
In the future I suggest that The Times should put a disclaimer on all of Scheer’s commentaries as “being out of touch with reality.”
That sums it up quite nicely.