No-Bid No Go

The New York Times reports that the no-bid Iraqi oil contracts for Western oil companies have been withdrawn. It always struck me as unbelievably absurd that this kind of shameless pandering to Western oil interests ever got as far as it did. It certainly wasn’t in the best interests of the Iraqi government to hand out their most valuable resource without competitive bidding.

Of course, under the Bush Administration, no-bid contracts seem to be the order of the day. I can’t think of a legitimate reason for a government to hand out a no-bid contract. That should be a red flag for corruption. I hope that the next congress will take some steps to stop the kind of abuses that the Bush Administration has practiced in this area – I’m look at you, Haliburton. Is there any reason why a government contract should be granted without a bidding process? Remind me again who was supposed to be the party of fiscal sanity?