MONEY FOR NOTHING?

Josh Marshall points to a WorldNet Daily story detailing some suspicious bonuses handed out by the administration:

A former Energy Department intelligence chief who agreed with the White House claim that Iraq had reconstituted its defunct nuclear-arms program was awarded a total of $20,500 in bonuses during the build-up to the war, WorldNetDaily has learned.

Thomas Rider, as acting director of Energy's intelligence office, overruled senior intelligence officers on his staff in voting for the position at a National Foreign Intelligence Board meeting at CIA headquarters last September.

His officers argued at a pre-briefing at Energy headquarters that there was no hard evidence to support the alarming Iraq nuclear charge, and asked to join State Department's dissenting opinion, Energy officials say.

Old habits die hard with the Republicans in DC. It's as if they're taking the tactics they used in the Clinton witchhunt and applying them to the Iraq war: They give Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi the Susan MacDougal treatment when he doesn't tell them what they want to hear, instead opting for the truth, that there was no active WMD program in Iraq. Now, from the WorldNet Daily story (which Marshall hopes will be picked up by the big guys) reveals a "would a little $$$ refresh your memory?" strategy they employed with David Hale and the Arkansas State Troopers. But of course, I thought our new leaders vowed to "change the tone"! Yeesh.