Democrat Al Franken held a news conference today to criticize GOP Sen. Norm Coleman for not conducting an investigation into miltary contracts in in Iraq and Afghanistan (read Franken release here). When the GOP controlled the Senate, Coleman was the chair of the Permanent Subcomittee on Investigations.
MPR’s Mark Zdechlik also provided full audio of the conference.
“The truth is that Norm Coleman was the Senate’s oversight czar, and he did nothing while at least ten billion dollars in taxpayer money went missing,” Franken told reporters on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol Monday morning.
It’s not the first time Franken has raised the PSI issue, charging that Coleman overlooked waste and fraud on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan while he chaired the powerful committee.
The implication is that Coleman didn’t want to uncover any waste that would put the invasion of Iraq or the Bush administration in a bad light. He noted Coleman has received campaign contributions from defense contractors and their subsidiaries which received no-bid contracts.
Al Franken sharply criticized Sen. Norm Coleman today for failing to hold any hearings on contractor fraud in Iraq during his time as chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “Our troops and our taxpayers needed a watchdog in that seat,” Franken said at a press conference this morning on the steps of the Capitol. “Instead they got a lapdog for George W. Bush and his cronies at Halliburton. Norm Coleman’s dereliction of duty stands as an indelible stain on his record. He let our country down. We paid a steep price. Now it falls to the people of Minnesota to hold him accountable.”
Franken laid out a litany of fraudulent practices that have sabotaged the reconstruction effort from the outset: $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills that vanished into the war zone; 50,000 pounds of nails dumped in the dessert by Halliburton employees because they were the wrong size; Mercedes trucks set on fire and abandoned because workers lacked the right wrench to make repairs. “Money flowed every which way, usually into the pockets of greedy contractors, often with little or no idea where it was going,” Franken said. “Norm Coleman was the Senate’s oversight czar and he did nothing while at least $15 billion in taxpayer money went missing.”
Associated Press’ Patrick Condon:
But Franken said Coleman was in a unique position to catch and punish defense contractors who schemed to overcharge the government for services linked to the rebuilding of Iraq. Franken pointed to Harry S. Truman’s work as a U.S. senator in the early 1940s to root out fraud in defense contracting as the U.S. entered into World War II.
Truman’s work ultimately spawned the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which Coleman took leadership of in 2003 as a freshman. It’s the only post in the U.S. Senate that gives its holder sole power to issue subpoenas.
Speaking of instances of fraud by Halliburton and other companies during the early days of the Iraqi reconstruction, Franken said: “If Harry Truman had been chairing the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 2003, this would not have happened … He would have put a stop to the corruption and saved taxpayers billions of dollars by preventing fraud before it happened.”
This is huge. As I’ve said before, this is the issue that proves Norm Coleman should have never been a Senator and certainly should not be a Senator for the next six years. It illustrates some of the highest levels of government waste and fraud in the history of the United States, all under Norm Coleman’s nose. I recommend reading the full breakdown on this from the Franken campaign. It’s extensive and the voting public needs to know about it.
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Truman, really? Really? Franken uses the president who started the modern tradition of going to war illegaly and was the prime driver behind the creation what is oft referred to as the military industrial complex that Eisenhower so famously forewarned. I guess partisanship is more important to Franken than accuracy in his historic references. What’s next, using LBJ as his example of how to deal with foreign entanglements?
Kerosine, thats all you got? A historical reference to a guy in the Senate who went after war profiteers bigtime followed by proof that Norm Coleman tucked corrupt war profiteers into bed and sang them a lullabye and all you got is Truman’s later presidency?
That has got to be the dumbest effort at misdirection I have ever read.
Norm get us our money back and you can start with the $12 billion shrink-wrapped $100 bills that went missing under your watch.
Why would anybody trust a modern day Republican to do anything… other than steal.
Misdirection? Pointing out your savior doesn’t have a clue about history is misdirection? You really are a mindless partisan zombie aren’t you amuesinc. Coleman is an awful senator and Franken has zero chance of being any better.
Not one of the links had a photograph of crowd (3 photographers and 2 team Franken members) he was giving the speech to. Maybe we will see the crowd on tonight’s news.
What is the next skit going to be about? All the good ones have been done, rape, porn, pedophilia…
ps Truman’s pledged 100% loyalty to the FDR administration during the hearings Franken mentions. That promise is a prime reason Truman was given the VP slot in 1944. Sounds like maybe Coleman was already using Truman as a role model.
No I just want you to follow the history… of what a Senator did, that Coleman didn’t. Not go off on your bullshit tangent about President Truman. Sheesh you think I’m a partisan as you jump around the years of history to look for something to complain about.
Aren’t you glad that President Bush and his Republican administration is now turning America into a Socialist economy with his “taxpayer’s bailout” of Wall Street? Makes you wonder if they have given up on Saint Ronny?
I love it how the ‘conservatives’ here don’t seem to give a flying eff about billions of lost dollars, and Coleman failing to engage in due oversight.
C’est la vie.
The size of the crowd at a press conference and a reference to a comedy skit?
That’s really what you’ve got to defend Coleman on this?
God help us all if Minnesota voters are as stupid as you seem to think they are.
K-Hat, your initial post has a time warp in it. If Truman created the military industrial complex, this had to have been before Eisenhower became president. Then, in his farewell address after eight years in office, Eisenhower forwarned warned of the military industrial complex. It certainly is complex.
Eisenhower served after Truman?
He “forwarned” of the MIC 8 years after Truman left office?
Those kind of details aren’t important. Why, we regularly hear about how all the things that have gone wrong under Bush are really Clinton’s fault. And of course, everything good that happened under Clinton was because of Reagan. Time doesn’t matter at all. The only rule is that the Democrats are at fault no matter what.
Franken used the Truman reference as a way of saying how he would handle the job Coleman was supposed to have done in the Senate. The problem is that Truman pledged loyalty to a war time administration in order to further his own career. Any meaningful oversight was secondary and, given the rest of Truman’s legacy, nothing more than window dressing. All very similar to Coleman’s history to date. So why is it my understanding Franken’s reference is basically him saying he would do the same job as Coleman is me looking for something to complain about? Is Franken hoping to win on the vote of the poorly informed? Or maybe I should only listen to him when he says stuff I like.
The devil is in the details. Something Franken has proven he is incapable of understanding or executing on. Much in the way he was unable to understand that no matter what Powell said he still supported the basic premis of the “Bush Doctrine”, that of preemptive war. I especially like how he uses a couple who lost their son to deceptively suggest that Coleman voted for the war when he wasn’t in the Senate at the time. I guess when you can’t say you are better at decision making in times of national importance your best hope is to hide behind grieving parents.
So your complaints of me understanding Franken’s own words don’t line up with his rhetoric, and your willingness to ignore it, is part of what put you in the “partisan hack” category. That you assume because I dislike Franken I must be a Republican apologist is further evidence you can’t see anything other than black and white.
“The problem is that Truman pledged loyalty to a war time administration in order to further his own career.”
kh, are you trying to claim Senator Truman had to pledge loyalty to the President, in order to chair the investigations committee? That Truman made sure none of the profiteering investigations were embarassing to the administration?
It’s interesting that no one has actually tried to defend Coleman yet. Not surprising though. That would be a difficult thing to do.
Billions actually WASTED, and Coleman fails to hold even ONE hearing in oversight.
Fail. Fail. Fail.
What kind of conservative values are these?
gopgal
you should write SNL about you and your truck, they’d definitely make a skit about that…..
I will plan on attending the first of the Senate debates in Minnesota. Rest assured that Al will bring up this issue. I want to see Normie squirm in his seat on this one when asked about how $12 Billion went missing. It will be a delight to watch.
Eisenhower, well after Truman’s death, warned of the damage the “military industrial complex” would do. Sorry if I wasn’t specific enough about what aspect of the MIC I meant.
Dan, is your only method of debate to pretend the person you are engaging has made claims they haven’t made? Truth is that there is plenty of blame to go around for our countries situation. Both parties have spent decades screwing things up only to enrich themselves and their buddies. Of course loyal party apologists from both sides help make it easy for them.
All Franken supporters end up with only one argument. He isn’t Coleman. Unfortunately, given the records of both parties that means nothing.
Why is it when the Republicans are directly blamable for a situation, say Katrina, it becomes a big “Let’s not play the Blame Game” or both sides of the aisle were complacent so we can’t fault one more than the other? Now lets have a screw up be of the Democratic Persuasion…
Exotic mortgage derivatives as financial products divorced from the risk and any connection to reality… WHHHEEE no regulation, let the “Free Market” take care of the problem… its all fun until some taxpayers get their eye put out!
Deregulation is the mantra of the Republicans… take some responsibility.
amuseinc,
Republican’s were directly responsible for a hurricane? I’ll assume you mean the response to said storm. The response that was completely botched at all levels, local state and federal. The first two, local and state being the ones primarily responsible for immediate disaster relief and were managed by Democrats. As for the markets do you mean the deregulation passed by the Clinton administration? An administration that was the largest recipients of money from the banking sector? Maybe that is another bit of information that got lost in your partisan filter.
Funny how a economic problem preceded by decades of bad monetary policy and the abuse of credit at every level can be so easily summed up blaming the “free market”. The economy was going to find reality no matter how long it was propped up with artificially low interest rates, stimulus packages and other politically motivated buffoonary. If you think it is bad now wait until the balloon payments on Medicare and Medicaid come due. The bailout is a horrible idea no matter what type of oversight is promised. The coalition that is supporting it reminds me of the one that supported the invasion of Iraq. Idiots from both parties finding friends and political cover by pretending to do something.
I’m sure though that Chris Dodd, Chair of the Banking Committee and largest recipient of funds from Fannie May and Freddie Mac, will do an excellent and unbiased job designing the bailout packages for those two companies. Your blind allegiance to the Democrats is sure to be rewarded by Mr. Dodd.
I think I said fairly clearly that there is plenty of blame to go around. One of the reasons I don’t support either party. Which is more or less the opposite of your twisted comprehension of “not wanting to play the blame game”. Your inability to see the Democrats complicity in the problems is borderline delusional.
Kerosine your bullshit ignoring of St. Ronnie, Phil Gramm and former deregulator George McCain is heartwarming. Of course Democrats participated and voted… but none of them put it into the Party plank like the Republicans did.
This reminds me of those willing to blame the Democrat in Congress for the Iraq War because they believed a lying George Bush and Dick Cheney. How dare they listen to the President and his false intelligence! Voting is not like starting the process and feeding the flames for an action you are driving for…
Powerful moneyed people and corporations have been affecting American Politics since the Southern Slave owners pulled rank on Jefferson, Adams and Franklin. To not hold political parties accountable for their philosophies and beliefs is ludicrous.
Dem’s can try to make this about Coleman/Bush all they want but they forget one thing -
Most people I talk to refuse to vote for Al Franken.
If Coleman wins it’s becuase the Dem’s squandared what should have been an easy victory by nominating a polarizing candidate with huge negatives.
amuseinc,
The Clinton’s and many other Democrats most certainly were much more than passive bystanders on banking deregulation. I didn’t expand on who else was responsible because I don’t believe that deregulation was the core cause of what happened. You made that claim and then simply blamed Republicans. You were either misinformed or being willfully dishonest.
And yes, anybody that supported the war shares the blame. Even if you believed Bush any support of the war was support for preemptive war. Otherwise known as the core to the Bush Doctrine. That Franken, who’s job was to be a critic of all things Republican and a supposed admirer of Wellstone to overlook that very simple and basic fact shows how myopic he is. Even if he believed Powell there was no justification for war, period. Anybody claiming the lies of the Bush administration lies as an excuse is a coward.
Yes, not holding a political party accountable for their philosophies is ludicrous. More importantly is holding a party accountable for it’s actions. I’m not a Republican, most likely never will be. So go ahead and continue to fling that around as your only response while you completely fail to live up to your own standards with the Democrats. I guess as long as Franken was able to buy the nomination of your preferred party he can do whatever he wants and you will continue to kiss his feet.
If as you say Clinton carries blame, why have not the Republicans “fixed” the problem in the 8 years it has been since Clinton last had a single thing to do with the economy. Or is it that what we see as a “bug” is actually a “feature” to the Republicans?
Mr. Hat, it seems that for an “independent” you certainly spend a lot of time defending the Republicans and slagging any Democrat you can… or is that also a “bug”?
Where did I defend Republicans? The closest I came was to correct your simple minded defense of Democrats and Franken by putting all the blame on Republicans rather than owning your own complicity. I have slagged plenty of Republicans and have defended Democrats and have helped on more than one campaign for Democrats. My biggest issue in politics is people inability to criticize the “team” they support. They join a gang and defend it with all the fervor and irrationality of a religion.
The Democrats now complain about the war and the economy and pretend they had nothing to do with any of it. Nobody from either party ever really tries to fix anything because the fixes cost too much politically. Both parties have been using smoke and mirrors for years. The stimulus and these new bailouts are the latest in a very long line of politically motivated fixes that only mask the real issues and push the costs further down the line.
And anybody who says that the economy follows directly any presidential term, either the current situation being all Bush or all Clinton is a simpleton or willfully dishonest.
Both parties have fundamentally failed and continuing to delude yourself by saying one is slightly less bad than the other and thereby worthy of support only perpetuates the problem. With that strategy the best you can hope for is to push off the real trouble for the next generation to deal with. The Franken/Coleman race perfectly illustrates the destructive, self promoting idiocy of both parties.