One of the White House corruption scandals that’s been simmering just below the surface deals with a very suspicious contract the administration struck with Boeing.
The Air Force negotiated a contract to lease refueling aircraft from Boeing Co. that could cost hundreds of millions to several billions of dollars more than it should, and followed a procurement strategy that demonstrated poor stewardship of Defense Department funds, according to a long-awaited report by the department’s inspector general.
The $23.5 billion program — the costliest lease in U.S. history — is currently suspended, pending a series of Defense Department reviews and the outcome of a criminal investigation in Virginia into potential wrongdoing. But the report, which was presented yesterday to members of the U.S. Senate, indicates the deal is unlikely to proceed on anything like the original contract terms.
It states that senior Air Force officials failed to comply with military contracting laws, wrongly exempted Boeing from disclosing vital price information, accepted insufficient or inaccurate Boeing data during its negotiations, and wrongly waived any right to audit the program once it gets started.
The whole thing smells really bad. Worse, Bush, who has enjoyed generous campaign contributions from Boeing, is directly involved. According to a senior administration official and internal Boeing communications unearthed in a congressional investigation, Bush “personally” asked White House aides to work out the lucrative deal.
Congress, in a rare display of backbone, put the brakes on the deal and has demanded some answers about how this deal skipped so many levels of accountability to got approved by the administration.
As Kevin Drum mentioned last night, Donald Rumsfeld has decided that he doesn’t feel like answering any questions about this mess. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has sharply limited the information he is willing to let Congress see on a controversial defense contract that is the focus of multiple investigations.
Rumsfeld took a hard line even with fellow Republicans who want information from him about a proposed $23 billion deal for the Air Force to buy and lease 100 Boeing 767 aerial refueling tankers. Rumsfeld’s refusal to give senators all the materials they requested could provoke a rare congressional subpoena.
“Rare” is an understatement. Republicans in Congress have acted like the White House can lie, cheat, and steal to the Bush’s heart’s content without any oversight at all. Now, a handful of Republicans, including John McCain, expect to see internal Pentagon emails and other communications with Boeing.
Rumsfeld believes he’s already sort of cooperating.
Rumsfeld gave his answer in a letter dated May 26, which was released on Thursday at the request of Knight Ridder. He said the Pentagon would provide only e-mails and documents “that do not reflect internal deliberative matters.”
Senators would have a window of 30 hours over five days to view the documents at a Pentagon facility and would be barred from copying them or taking notes. After the review period the documents could be seen only by appointment.
Rumsfeld told the committee he would let its members see e-mails that were reports of communications with members of Congress or references to them. The members’ names and any identifying information on them would be deleted, the letter said.
Rumsfeld’s effectively daring Congress to subpoena him. The information he’s offering Congress lawmakers either already have or don’t need. And by treating lawmakers as the enemy, Rumsfeld is antagonizing the Senate and mocking the congressional oversight process.
McCain said Rumsfeld’s response would “eviscerate the responsibility of Congress to provide oversight in such matters.”
“There is not one single element in that letter which is acceptable to me,” he said.
So, will Congress back up those subpoena threats with real action? We’ll see.