So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time

October 17, 2008 | SEND TO A FRIEND | GET EARLY NOTICE OF THE HOTW

Harry Sargeant III

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

You probably haven't heard of Harry Sargeant III. He's one of those unsung crony capitalists who toils anonymously raising thousands and thousands of dollars for Republican candidates (including John McCain), and then "mysteriously" ends up making millions and millions of dollars at our -– the taxpayers –- expense.

For all McCain's talk about going after the leeches who drain our national treasury, he would have to throw just about everyone out of his campaign were he to adopt his disingenuous goal.

According to an October 17 The New York Times article, "The Democratic chairman of a House investigative committee [Henry Waxman] presented documents to the Pentagon on Thursday charging that a top Republican fund-raiser, Harry Sargeant III, made tens of millions of dollars in profits over the last four years because his contracting company vastly overcharged for deliveries of fuel to American air bases in Iraq."

How much did Sargeant make in our tax dollars, how much did he profit?

Well, just remember that this is the redistribution of the nation's money from our pockets to the likes of McCain mega-donors such as Sargeant:

According to the documents, the Pentagon tried to negotiate a lower price with Mr. Sargeant, but he held firm, saying the prices were reasonable given his expenses. But as a result, Mr. Waxman's letter says, the company has been paid $1.4 billion on four different contracts for the fuel deliveries and made a profit of $210 million after expenses.

The letter and other documents indicate that Mr. Sargeant currently has just one other partner in the venture, suggesting that they would largely divide those profits. "Mr. Sargeant's personal gain from these four contracts may have been $70 million or higher," Mr. Waxman's letter says.

Now, remember this is how "pay to play" works. The donor gives and raises large amounts of money to a candidate or party. In return, the donor gets large contracts -– in this case the highest bid among six proposals (you read that right, the most costly bid) –- that yield gains far in excess of what they have raised for their political patrons, at our expense.

The New York Times notes:

Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, said that further investigation was warranted even though the initial inquiry did not turn up direct evidence of political meddling. Mr. Waxman estimated that if the lowest bidder had been awarded the contracts, taxpayers would have saved some $180 million.

"The fact that the contracting officer warned them lends credence to the general allegation that this is profiteering and that this is an unfair contract," Ms. Alexander said. "To allow that high of a profit to deliver fuel to the troops is not the kind of management we need right now."

Although Sargeant vehemently denies gouging the taxpayers, it is worth noting that "Mr. Sargeant is one of several dozen people who are listed on Senator McCain's Web site as having raised $500,000 or more for him. He was the host of a fund-raiser for Mr. McCain at his mansion in Delray Beach, Fla., this year."

Guess, who paid for those fundraisers, in essence.

We did.

Republicans talk about reducing excessive government spending. The easiest place to start is by simply going down a list of large GOP fundraisers and seeing what contracts they have with the U.S. government. You can be sure that there's more fat to trim there than there is on a cheap Christmas goose.

For supporting the party that claims to want to rein in government spending while benefiting from overcharged contracts with the Pentagon, Harry Sargeant III is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.