In the interests of proving that I’m not all-Plamegate, all-the-time, I’d like to change the subject for a moment. In fact, I have a horrible confession to make: For months, I’ve been unconvinced that Halliburton is the horrible scandal my liberal friends think it is.
Don’t get me wrong; it looks bad. Dick Cheney was the well-paid CEO of Halliburton, he left to become Bush’s vice president, and suddenly Halliburton is winning no-bid government contracts in Iraq worth billions.
The reason I’ve found myself on the fence about this alleged outrage is a nagging belief that Halliburton may have won these same no-bid contracts after the war, regardless of Cheney.
The federal government is relying on private companies for most of infrastructure work in Iraq. Halliburton, love it or hate it, has been doing this kind of work for a long time. It’s been winning engineering, oil, and infrastructure contracts from the government since Cheney was in elementary school. I haven’t seen any evidence that Cheney had any role in helping his former company win a single deal. With this in mind, as much as I abhor this administration, I’ve been a little skeptical about this.
On the other hand, Cheney himself keeps giving me reasons to think there might be more to this. Here I am willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt on the Halliburton scandal-to-be, and he starts saying things that aren’t true. And usually when someone’s lying, there’s something they’re trying to cover up.
Just two weeks ago, Cheney was on Meet the Press. When Russert brought up Halliburton and the nagging questions about potential improprieties, Cheney insisted that he has absolutely no connections to his former company.
“[S]ince I left Halliburton to become George Bush’s vice president, I’ve severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests,” Cheney said. “I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had now for over three years.”
That’s a categorical denial about existing ties and an explanation as to why Cheney would have no reason to direct government contracts to his former company.
There’s just one problem. As a Carpetbagger friend, let’s call him Stuart, reminded me the other day, Cheney has not “severed all ties” with his company.
In fact, CNN said Friday that a congressional report requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) office shows that Cheney still has substantial financial interests in Halliburton.
“The report says that the deferred compensation that Cheney receives from Halliburton as well as the more than 433,000 stock options he possesses ‘is considered among the ‘ties’ retained in or ‘linkages to former employers’ that may ‘represent a continuing financial interest’ in those employers which makes them potential conflicts of interest,'” CNN said.
Lautenberg noted, “The ethics standards for financial disclosure is clear. Vice President Cheney has a financial interest in Halliburton.” Lautenberg added that he believes the ongoing ties are probably a “mistake,” but asked Cheney to “stop dodging the issue with legalese, and acknowledge his continued ties with Halliburton to the American people.”
In 2001, Cheney’s first year as vice president, he received $205,298 in deferred salary from Halliburton. Last year, he received an additional $162,392, and he’s still scheduled to receive more money from the company this year and next year. “Gotten rid of all my financial interests”? Don’t think so.
Moreover, take a look at Cheney’s Halliburton stock options — 100,000 shares at $54.50 per share, 33,333 shares at $28.125 and 300,000 shares at $39.50 per share. Naturally, the value of Halliburton stock is likely to increase as it receives lucrative government contacts, meaning that Cheney benefits directly when the company does well.
If Cheney wants people to believe his claims, and reject the notion that there are sweetheart deals being struck behind closed doors, it’d help if he came clean and stopped misleading the country about his significant financial interests in Halliburton.