Amen

NYTimes editorial:

It's a sign of just how bad cronyism has become in the Bush administration when the announcement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is actually going to seek bids on contracts for the cleanup and recovery from Hurricane Katrina makes front-page news. But so it is in America these days that we must step back and congratulate the administration for agreeing to hold a fair auction.
The announcement, of course, from David Paulison, the acting director of FEMA, came only after sharp criticism that the agency had suspended normal contracting rules to award contracts to friends of the Bush administration. Four contracts totaling $400 million went, without a bid, to the Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, La.; the Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; Bechtel National of San Francisco; and CH2M Hill of Denver. The Shaw Group's lobbyist is Joe Allbaugh, the former FEMA director and a friend of President Bush. Riley Bechtel, the chairman and chief executive of Bechtel, served on the president's Export Council.