Moose?

December 15, 2003 8:22 PM

Robert "Moose" Cobb's new job --Under fire for its handling of postwar contracts in Iraq, the Bush administration plans to appoint NASA's inspector general to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad to oversee investigations of any alleged abuses. Cobb was Associate Presidential Counsel for Bush and before that spent nine years as a career attorney with the Office of Government Ethics. His appointment was seen as a bid by the administration to counter criticism -- mostly from Democrats in Congress -- that oversight of multibillion-dollar contracts has been lax. So can a guy who worked in the Bush White House actually be trusted to objectively investigate abuses? And if the Pentagon is auditing all of this, why use this guy? (and can the Pentagon objectively investigate this stuff either?)
posted by amberglow (15 comments total)

"...can a guy who worked in the Bush White House actually be trusted to objectively investigate abuses?"

*sigh*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:40 PM on December 15, 2003

So can a guy who worked in the Bush White House actually be trusted to objectively investigate abuses?

Objection, counsel is baiting the witness.
posted by the fire you left me at 8:41 PM on December 15, 2003

so sue me--but can he? wouldn't an independent person be better at this?
posted by amberglow at 8:43 PM on December 15, 2003

Clearly, the investigator should have been appointed by the Governor of California.
posted by namespan at 8:49 PM on December 15, 2003

I'm thinking an Eliot Spitzer would be ideal.
posted by amberglow at 8:53 PM on December 15, 2003

I like how when Ashcroft is off being our nutjob zealot-in-chief, Spitzer is basically acting as our de facto Attorney General. I hope he gets a shot at national AG sometime in the future.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:32 PM on December 15, 2003

so sue me--but can he?

I would suggest directing all questions over here
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 11:28 PM on December 15, 2003

can a guy who worked in the Bush White House actually be trusted to objectively investigate abuses?

No.

Just ask Valerie Plame.
posted by nofundy at 4:52 AM on December 16, 2003

Please. Why would we expect anything different from an administration whose regulators are appointed from the ranks of the industries they are supposed to regulate?

*sigh*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:40 PM PST on December 15

Say crash...ever considered an internship with Al Qaeda? I hear those folks don't like a lot of questioning of their leadership, either. You and "Seth" and all might fit in real good, and find a comfort level there you're obviously not getting here.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 9:56 AM on December 16, 2003

The question should not be whether Mr. Cobb can be independent, but can anybody be independent? The only process that I can think of is an appoint of an independent counsel. That is not only highly unlikely, but also arguably unnecessarily under the circumstances.

Any internal investigation, by President Bush or anyone else, is likely to suffer from the possibility of bias. Then again, given the strong emotions President Bush evokes from most people I think it would likely nobody in the world could be without bias.
posted by Bag Man at 11:24 AM on December 16, 2003

Wow, and when I thought fold_and_mutilate could not reach a new low... BAM... he surprises me yet again...


Comparing people to al Qaeda... nice.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:35 PM on December 16, 2003

The pentagon has more systems for accountability than any reasonable person can imagine.
Yet year after year they don't come close to passing a basic audit. Not to the nearest penny . . . not to the nearest billion. Here's an interesting study for those who might be interested.

Pigs at a trough will only leave when they are driven away. An inspector from the administration is not going to do anything that matters IMHO.
posted by ahimsakid at 2:45 PM on December 16, 2003

"seth" ?
posted by clavdivs at 9:01 PM on December 16, 2003

This is sad Amberglow.

Guess you don't give a damn what Matt said in the MeTa thread, and the disgust that many people have stated over such overtly partisan shilling.
posted by Seth at 9:20 PM on December 16, 2003

Hey, isn't this like putting in charge of overseeing campaign finances a guy who got fined for campaign finance violations.

Bringing back honor to the White House ... NOT!

/Guess you don't give a damn about the disgust that many people have stated over your biased and unsusbstantiated whining. And please stop dropping Matt's name. I'd say he's done a great job so far. You haven't.
posted by magullo at 7:47 AM on December 17, 2003