Walter Reed Inquiry Targets GOP

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3222.html

Walter Reed Inquiry Targets GOP

By: Jeanne Cummings
March 21, 2007 07:19 AM EST


Congressional inquiries into conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are taking a political turn as Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, investigates whether high-profile Republicans used their influence to help a firm win a private maintenance contract.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Treasury Secretary John Snow and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all have some connection to the firm, IAP Worldwide Services. The company's board is also populated with former top military officials.

IAP won the maintenance contract after a protracted competition with a group of former federal civil service employees who also bid for the work that was targeted for privatization during the Clinton administration.

In an interview, Kaptur said IAP's corporate connections "look like a Republican parking lot. Was the outsourcing a matter of favoritism with people with the right connections?"

Her probe widens that panel's ongoing review of the conditions and treatment experienced by injured soldiers returning from Iraq. IAP's contract is also being scrutinized by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who has highlighted the firm's connections to Halliburton Inc., Vice President Cheney's old firm and one that has come under fire for its charges and services in Iraq.

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[louis-t]

1. "look like a Republican parking lot"

:rofl:

[central scrutinizer]

2. I'm shocked!! Cronyism is bad? Noooooooooo....

[robinlynne]

3. nice catch sister!

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. How sad that the highest ranks of the military comprise so many

deeply cynical opportunists, who can have had little or no fellow-feeling for the men and women under their command. More courtiers than men of action, and particularly venal and predatory at that. Not that it's new, but I'd be very bitter if I were a general, admiral, etc.