Iraq reconstruction auditor fired by Republicans

Another quick post on one of many Republican outrages that happen with disturbing regularity:

The US agency responsible for monitoring fraud and waste in the Iraq reconstruction effort has been "mysteriously" axed. The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction will be shut down in 2007, thanks to an obscure clause in a military spending bill. The office unconvered billions of dollars in government waste in Iraq and obtained several criminal convictions.

According to the BBC, US lawmakers were shocked that the Iraq audit office was slated for elimination. Nobody seems to know who introduced the killer clause:

Republican Senator Susan Collins told the New York Times she was mystified about how the termination clause had found its way into the bill. Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the newspaper he would push for an extension of Mr Bowen's charter. [BBC]

We might not know who it was, but it seems the clause was introduced in a House-Senate conference committee that is supposed to reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of bills. These committees are controlled by Republicans now and they have been extremely secretive and rife with last minute "adjustments" of dubious nature. It's things like this that make it so important that Democrats regain control of Congress. It doesn't matter how nice Lincoln Chafee is. The "R" after his name is making him part of the problem. Fortunately, it looks like he'll lose to the Democratic challenger.