Iraq -- Looking More and More Like Our GOP-Controlled Congress Every Day

Right wingers are always complaining about how the libral media fail to report all the good things that are happening in Iraq right now. But I think the U.S. media are underreporting just how bad it is over there.

I doubt this article from the New York Times will get much coverage anywhere else in the U.S. Press:

[A] sitting member of the Iraqi National Assembly has been indicted in the theft of millions of dollars meant for protecting a critical oil pipeline against attacks and is suspected of funneling some of that money to the insurgency, said Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the chairman of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity. The indictment has not been made public.

The charges against the Sunni lawmaker, Meshaan al-Juburi, are far from the only indication that the insurgency is profiting from Iraq's oil riches.

On Saturday, the director of a major oil storage plant near Kirkuk was arrested with other employees and several local police officials, and charged with helping to orchestrate a mortar attack on the plant on Thursday, a Northern Oil Company employee said. The attack resulted in devastating pipeline fires and a shutdown of all oil operations in the area, said the employee, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Ali Allawi, Iraq's finance minister, estimated that insurgents reap 40 percent to 50 percent of all oil-smuggling profits in the country. Offering an example of how illicit oil products are kept flowing on the black market, he said that the insurgency had infiltrated senior management positions at the major northern refinery in Baiji and routinely terrorized truck drivers there. This allows the insurgents and their confederates to tap the pipeline, empty the trucks and sell the oil or gas themselves.

None of this should be too surprising given that "nearly half (47%) of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces."

Clearly, this is bad news for the Republicans. Majority Leader John Boehner was on Meet the Press this morning. Russert asked, "If the situation in Iraq in November of this year is like it is today, will the Republicans pay a price?" Boehner's response: "I think we will."

I think he's right, assuming the Democrats are willing to push the Iraq Debacle as a campaign issue. The problem, however, is that there were plenty of Democrats who voted to give Bush the authority to invade, and the GOP will obviously try to exploit this fact. It will be interesting to see whether the American people nonetheless blame the Republicans for the Iraq Catastrophe.