Molly Ivins just can't come to grips with the fact that we ousted a oppressive dictator:

The Bush administration's granting contracts to rebuild Iraq to Dick Cheney's firm Halliburton and the Republican-connected Bechtel Group of San Francisco.

Has no one in this administration any sense of public relations? Have they any idea how this looks to the rest of the world, which was largely convinced that we invaded Iraq for the oil to begin with? Halliburton and Bechtel?

Have any of these people ever heard of the need to avoid the appearance of impropriety? Or are we just past that now, so cocky we don't even care?

We knew going in this was going to be the peace from hell, and so far the administration has made every misstep possible. Did it occur to no one that Rumsfeld's chosen puppet, Ahmad Chalabi -- a convicted embezzler, sentenced in absentia to 22 years in prison in Jordan -- might prove a bit sticky? Might even be perceived by the Arab world as a colossal insult?

Hey Molly, I don't believe I've heard Nanci Pelosi say anything about her home-town based corporation getting the contract. Bechtel also gave more money to Dems than Republicans. I guess he could've given the work to someone not considered "Big Business", but I really doubt a company like this could handle the work.