Last night, I went to the Philadelphia premiere of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. I am not going to critique the movie too much, because as I sat in the theater, one thought kept running through my mind: this is the most the clear-cut, winning political issue for Democrats in a generation. If we take even one house of Congress, we need to immediately set up a second Truman commission to investigate and prosecute war profiteering. If this issue stays in the headlines for an extended period of time, it will negatively brand Republicans for decades. It has everything:

• Cronyism. Private companies getting huge contracts in Iraq because of their connections to high-level Republicans.
• Political weakness Corruption: Republicans refusing to investigate widespread allegations and evidence of illegal activities on the part of these contractors because the heads of these companies are huge Republican donors.
• Screwing the troops: Big business being put ahead about our men and women in uniform.
• Screwing America: Big business ripping off tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers.
• Screwing workers: Companies not protecting workers in life and death situations because it costs too much.
• Incompetence and misuse of the military: The government used these contractors because they had done such a poor job of planning the Iraq that they needed a stop-gap measure to fill all of their schemes in Iraq.
• Human rights abuses: Most of the abuses in Abu Gharib were committed by contractors, not members of the military. In this way, contractors are also destroying the image of America around the world.
• Inefficiency in government: These contractors are actually a waste of our money because they aren't doing their jobs well.

When you add it all up, it is not only disgusting, but actually a perfect symbol for Republican "governance" under Bush. You have these characteristics of governance arise again and again under Bush, in a wide variety of issues. Basically, everyone is getting screwed except for Republican campaign contributors, because, well, those are the only people they care about under the Republican trifecta in Washington, D.C. IF Republicans in Washington had any decency, any guts, or any sense of common good, they would have been investigating the allegations against these contractors for a long time. Howver, they haven't done squat. As Senator Reid's office noted today:Bush Republicans only seem interested in oversight when Democrats are in office.

Subpoenas issued to the White House between 1995 and 2000 1,050[1]
Subpoenas issued to the White House between 2000 and 2005Every single Republican Senator voted against holding bi-partisan hearings into contractor abuse and fraud in Iraq back in 2004. They refuse to look into these allegations, much less to actually prosecute people.

Since this has not been a major news story at all, it might be difficult for Democratic campaigns to pick this fight in the 2006 elections. However, this would be a wildly popular set of investigations, it would be the right thing to do, and it would make a lot of Republicans look very, very bad. The needs to be the first thing we investigate if we take back either branch of Congress. This is the fight we need to pick, and the news story we need the media to cover. Of all the outrageous things that have taken place under the Bush administration, this one is perhaps the most symbolic. We need that symbolism out in the open as much as possible.

Anyway, go see the film, and I think you will understand what I mean.