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"Most crooked ... lying group of people I've ever seen." The apology demanded by the GOP for Kerry's remarks is unnecessary in light of other, more significant stories in today's news:

As military and congressional investigators continue to pore over Halliburton's books, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is raising questions about cost estimates that fluctuate by as much as $700 million or that rely on information from sacked subcontractors.

The House Government Reform Committee is scheduled to quiz a slate of Pentagon officials today about the military's contracting woes in Iraq.

Waxman and other Democrats on the panel want the military brass to address questions raised by auditors at the Defense Contract Audit Agency in a Dec. 31 "flash report" concerning a $2.7 billion Halliburton proposal to provide logistical support for U.S. troops.

Those auditors, Waxman said, found that Halliburton violated federal acquisition rules by failing to provide "current, accurate and complete data regarding subcontractor costs."

"This new information ... depicts a situation where costs are virtually uncontrolled, and Halliburton can overcharge the taxpayer by phenomenal sums," Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Committee, wrote in a memo to his Democratic colleagues on the panel.

$700 million in "fluctuations" leaves a fair amount of latitude for crookedness and lying by the civilian contractor of a war orchestrated by its CEO.

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