WP: Halliburton, the Second-Term Curse?

By Dana Milbank

The White House's Halliburton Honeymoon is already history.

Only two days after President Bush declared victory in his quest for a second term, the company once run by Vice President Cheney dropped a political bomb.

In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the oil services company said that the Justice Department expanded its investigation into Halliburton, that government probes have found that bribes may have been made in Nigeria and that A. Jack Stanley, a former senior executive, may have been involved.

(snip)

Bush could defy the second-term curse, of course. And, with Congress in friendly hands and the demise of the independent counsel statute, he has advantages his predecessors did not. But there are a range of investigations and simmering controversies that were held off until after the election -- and that could present trouble for the president as they resurface.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35234-2004Nov8.html

We let them use it against us, then when it was time for us to use it against them, we didn't fight to keep it alive.

Is there any group stupider politically or more wimpy than our own party?

We can pass nothing without their consent.

our Dem leadership. And with good cause.

I mean, we're the ones who get all riled up about death and destruction and bribes and no-bids and collusion and incompetence and human rights and on and on.

Repubs just sit back and yawn at our outrage. As long as they have their remote control, their Wal-Mart, and their SUV, they don't care.

"Democrats. We care."

Hunh. I kind of like the sound of that.

With all arms of government and the media in his corner, I can't see him being derailed by any kind of scandal. This is just being put out there to encourage progressives to swallow the pill - "sure Bush won by fraud, but he won't really be able to get anything done, so I won't object to it very much".