We need more Russ Feingolds

Remember the middle-of-the-night congressional shenanigans (tucked away a clause in the military appropriations bill quickly signed by George Bush) that terminated the mandate of Stuart Bowen, the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction? Bowen had uncovered massive fraud, incompetence and war profiteering on the part of companies like Halliburton and Parsons. There still is no indication of how the clause made its way into the bill*, but Bowen will not be standing in the unemployment line after all, courtesy of Russ Feingold.
It was Feingold who, in 2003, insisted that an IG be established as part of the CPA to "oversee the use of Taxpayer dollars sent to Iraq." Feingold has worked steadily to extend the term of the IG as well as his mandate. So Russ was kinda sorta pissed when they axed one of the only adults overseeing the war profiteering quagmire. And today, Bush backed down and signed the Iraq Reconstruction Accountability Act, extending Bowen's work.

Feingold:

"I applaud the President’s decision to sign into law the Collins-Feingold bill extending the important work of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. It would have been a costly mistake to shut down the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction prematurely. The SIGIR has been successful in providing aggressive oversight over billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars allocated for the reconstruction of Iraq. With the President’s signature, we have sent a strong bipartisan message to Americans that we are working to prevent the waste, fraud and abuse of their taxpayer dollars in Iraq.”

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/21/more-adults-like-russ-please/