At Point Blank Range

One thing I cannot stand is the purely partisan bashing of President Bush. While there are many of President Bush's decisions that I do not support, I believe it is my duty to get and understand the facts before coming to a conclusion.

Naturally, since this story,

U.S. authorities arrested two former top executives of a major body armor supplier to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies on Thursday and charged them with criminal securities fraud and insider trading.

Federal prosecutors alleged former Chief Financial Officer Dawn Schlegel and former Chief Operating Officer Sandra Hatfield manipulated DHB Industries Inc.'s books "to reap millions of dollars of profits through insider trading."

hit the press, there has been so much outcry about this being a result of percieved corruption by President Bush's administration.

The typical flim-flam has been that Schlegel and Hatfield were propably Bush donors or the conclusion that the flawed body armor is President Bush's fault for ok'ing the contract.

Hmmmmmmm

Hatfield or Schlegel: donors to President Bush?

A quick check at Opensecrets shows that niether Hatfield nor Schlegel gave to any federal candidate, Democrat, Republican, or otherwise, during the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 election cycles.

President Bush's fault for the contract?

Well, it is, indeed true, that the most recent contract was included in part of the overall package being spent on the War in Iraq, though it was labelled for the generic purchase of body armor - not from any specific company.

Upon reading further, I discovered the following at GlobalSecurity.org

The INTERCEPTOR System went into production in 1998 under a five-year contract awarded by US Army Natick Soldier Center contracting. On 27 July 1998 Point Blank Body Armor Inc.*, Oakland Park, Fla., was awarded on July 23, 1998, $5,573,715, as part of an $82,265,250 firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for 10,475 U.S. Marine Corps Tactical Body Armor (INTERCEPTOR) Outer Tactical Vests (OTV). Work will be performed in Oakland Park, Fla., and is expected to be completed by July 6, 1999. Of the total contract funds, $5,573,715 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was an announcement on the World Wide Web on April 13, 1998, and six bids were received.

It seems the contract was awarded during the previous administration.

That being said...

It's not fair to blame President Clinton either. The naysayers have the benefit of handsight. In reality, niether administration likely could have known of the future wrong doings of other people. In fact, the people who should take the blame are the perpetrators.