Michelle Malkin once again takes to task the blaring omission of the mainstream media’s reporting that attempts to paint the Bush administration in a bad light. Their hysteria and vehement hatred for G.W.B goes on overdrive when CNN reports that certain firms with ties to the White House are getting the contracts to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
Malkin points out that [ ...just like CBS and Dan Rather on the Memogate scandal... Ed.] CNN jumped to a conclusion that what they uncovered was the whole story. Their lack of research serves only to embarrass them, once again. Read this:
Michelle Malkin: THE DEMOCRATS’ KATRINA PROFITEER — But in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact–and embarrasses only itself.
The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco’s campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group’s corporate jets to on numerous occasions.
Always one to stir up controversies, the MSM doesn’t seem to get it that there are very few firms that could handle the scope of such projects. Halliburton and The Shaw Group are tops in a very sparse list of companies that could rebuild the infrastructure of a city as unique as New Orleans. It makes sense that they don’t “bid” out the contracts to dozens or hundreds of smaller contractors. The scale and scope of this project—from Biloxi and Gulfport to New Orleans—is certainly of historically epic proportion. Besides, The Shaw Group’s worldwide headquarters are not in California, not in New York, not in France or Indonesia—nope, they’re based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Like it or not, they’re local and preferred.
