Blogometer Update

Iraq: Green Zone Blues?

   Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote an article in Sunday'sWashington Post with some rather meaty claims about GOP favoritism in Iraqi reconstruction gigs, specifically as directed by Coalition Provisional Authority official Jim O'Beirne.  A taste:

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000?  Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror?  Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade.

   Come Monday, O'Beirne defenders came out firing.  At National Review's The Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru took a broad swipe,knocking bloggers who "are happy to accept the veracity of an account that gibes so well with all of their prejudices."  Oh, by the way, Ponnuru beneath his byline: "Full disclosure note: Jim O'Beirne is a friend, as is his wife, my colleague Kate O'Beirne."

   Ponnuru in particular rued the WaPo reporter's inclusion of a photo (available here, reg-restricted) that allegedly shows US soldiers relaxing in a pool within the Baghdad Green Zone, insinuating cleverly that "O'Beirne was sending ... political appointees to cushy jobs in Iraq."  Ponnuru also vehemently defended the unnamed "'daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator'" with no accouting background who was put in charge of Iraq's $13 billion reconstruction budget; Ponnuru disputes both claims.  He then concludes with a point-by-point rip on each of WaPo's assertions:

O'Beirne wasn't in charge of staffing the Coalition Provisional Authority; he didn't have a "staff" of his own, let alone one that could ask crudely political questions of applicants; he didn't ask anyone he interviewed about his views on Roe v. Wade (a claim that, careful readers will see, Chandrasekaran doesn't quite tie to O'Beirne); he was eager to find Arabic speakers; and he has never been deluged with job applicants who opposed the Iraq war and the Bush administration but wanted to serve in a war zone (surprise, surprise).  Much of the article recapitulates the well-known rivalry between the State Department and the Pentagon (where O'Beirne works), with some extra bitterness added by Fred Smith, a CPA official who was forced out.  Great story otherwise!

   Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner also chimed in with props for the again unnamed neocon's daughter: "[She] and those like her deserve better than the treatment they got in the Washington Post yesterday."

   Matthew Yglesias wasn't buying the defenses:

[M]y understanding is that life inside the Green Zone was actually fairly pleasant during the relevant period.  It also completely misses the point, however, which is simply that the CPA was being treated as something more like an extension of the Republican National Committee than a serious institution of government.  Not only did this compromise the quality and qualifications of the personnel, but it had an insidious impact on the operations of the CPA.  "They don't call it the Republican Palace for nothing" was the joke at the time.  The upshot being that the civilian side of the operation was being run with a mindset in which there was perfect overlap between the political interests of the Republican Party and with the national interests of the United States in its policy toward post-war Iraq.

   Mark Raven at TPMCafe goes Yglesias one further by identifying the unnamed woman and her neocon father: Simone Ledeen, daughter of none other than Michael Ledeen, New Republic correspondent of yellowcake infamy.