Bush Procurement Officer Indicted

David Safavian, General Services Administration (GSA) chief of staff from May 2002 - January 2004, "was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on charges of lying and obstructing investigations into his 2002 golf outing to Scotland with lobbyist Jack Abramoff," according to the Washington Post. Abramoff is under investigation and is connected to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Stephen A. Perry, who headed GSA while Safavian was chief of staff, resigned Monday. Add Frist and PlameGate. Katrina and "Brownie." Patrick Buchanon calls it well: ''When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.''

But the sorrows are not confined to the Bush Administration and high profile Republicans. You and me, the American taxpayer, should be weeping crocodile tears for another reason.

The Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Safavian "pushed a provision in a disaster bill to increase the number of contracts that Congress could award on a noncompetitive basis."

Safavian has resigned, but hundreds of noncompetitive contracts live on in his name. More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency contracts were awarded without competitive bidding. Even the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department has said he is "very apprehensive" about how the administration is handing out contracts.

It appears Safavian carried out a time-honored tradition of disaster a la pork:

Of course, the key to becoming a disaster millionaire is to strike when the disaster's hot. Take Sunnye Sims, who until three years ago was a meeting-and-events planner living in a $1,025-a-month, two-bedroom apartment in San Diego. Post-9-11, Congress was gushing out domestic security money to well-connected companies, which in turn were subcontracting out the work after taking hefty profits. Sims secured one of those subcontracts to help set up and run assessment centers for airport screeners. She eventually charged the government $24 million, paying herself $5.4 million, and now lives in a stunning $1.9-million hilltop mansion. Auditors recently stated that $15 million in expenses for her company are still unsubstantiated.

Stay tuned. It looks like the show has just started. We aren't even at intermission yet.

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Bush, Politics, Safavian