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One of the themes of this blog just came to a head today (Yahoo/AP):

DALLAS - The Securities and Exchange Commission has formalized its investigation of Halliburton Co.'s accounting practices, the company said.

The decision, announced late Thursday, expands a probe the SEC began in May.

The accounting issue concerns a 1998 policy change, when Dallas-based Halliburton began counting cost overruns as additional revenue on some construction and engineering jobs, before the customer agreed to pay for the extra costs.

The change was made when Vice President Dick Cheney served as the company's CEO and was approved by Arthur Andersen, the company's former auditor.

This is something we have consistently pointed out in many earlier posts: the disproportionate treatment of Arthur Andersen, relative to the still-unindicted Enron executives, was always ultimately meant to protect not just George W. Bush but also former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney. They knew that the SEC would bear down upon Halliburton sooner or later, and what better way to destroy the accounting evidence than to shred not the documents but the auditor itself.

The entire administration reeks of cronyism and dirty tricks. What's the antonym of "meritocracy"? The Bush dynasty.

{ 9:46 AM }

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