Sen. Lautenberg: Coleman refused to investigate Iraq fraud
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 12:34 pm
- 3 Comments
Yesterday Norm Coleman’s campaign trotted out Sen. Joe Lieberman to defend his record as chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been repeatedly criticized by challenger Al Franken. Today the Franken camp released a statement from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (pictured) supporting the Democrat’s assertion that Coleman failed to provide any oversight of fraud and waste stemming from the reconstruction of Iraq.
“I was eager to get to the bottom of the serious allegations against Halliburton and other contractors — potentially the biggest wartime rip-off in our country’s history,” the statement from Lautenberg reads. “But Norm Coleman and the Republican leadership of the committee simply refused to to investigate. Even after multiple requests from me and my colleagues to get the committee to do its job and get to the bottom of it — they refused.”
Lautenberg states that he wrote nine letters to the committee leadership seeking an investigation, but was rebuffed. He links the lack of scrutiny to the fact that VP Dick Cheney was formerly the chief executive of Halliburton, the largest recipient of Iraq contracts. “When it was time to choose between protecting taxpayer dollars and our troops or protecting Dick Cheney from embarrassment, Norm Coleman chose Dick Cheney,” the statement concludes.
The two campaigns are each running television ads sparring over the issue. Here’s the Franken spot:
And the Coleman rebuttal:
3 Comments
Comment posted September 25, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
If Coleman’s argument that other investigations were going on was legitimate, then why did he carry out his investigation of the oil-for-food program when Paul Volcker was already investigating?
Comment posted September 25, 2008 @ 8:48 pm
Franken is just trying to draw attention away from his own failure to pay taxes. He wants to protect taxpayers money, but he doesn’t want to pay taxes. . a little hard to believe.
Check out this clip. .
http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=191
I guess Franken thinks taxes are a joke.
Comment posted September 27, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
The “Franken didn’t pay taxes” argument needs to be put to bed. It is straight out of the Republican reading of Josef Goebbles, “if you say it enough it will be true” approach to campaigning. The fact is that Franken paid taxes on all the income he earned. His accountant paid his state tax obligations in Minnesota and New York, which was a mistake. Once the mistake was discovered, Franken refiled returns in all the affected states, got refunds for the taxes he overpaid in Minnesota and New York and made good on his obligations to the other affected states. Done.
The upcoming election is not about who can hire and oversee the best accountant. The election is about who will do the best job representing the interests of the people of Minnesota in the US Senate. I believe the 6 years we have given Norm Coleman to represent us in the Senate shows us where his loyalties lie. His refusal to investigate the malfeasance and profiteering by contractors supporting our troops in Iraq prove that he saw his job as protecting the interests of the rich and powerful people who supported and continue to support his campaign rather that the interests of the US taxpayers. His record shows that he is more interested in supporting the Bush White House that selected him to run for this Senate seat that the people he was supposed to represent. Enough is enough.
Apparently, Coleman thinks spending tax dollars is a joke. Why else would he refuse to use the most extensive subpoena power available to any congressional committee to make sure our tax dollars are being spent responsibly?
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