NM-02: Cheney to Stump for Tinsley at Hobbs Fundraiser

According to an AP story, VP Dick Cheney, who did not attend the GOP convention in St. Paul and whose name was never mentioned formally there, will attend a fundraiser for Ed Tinsley on September 26th in Hobbs. Hobbs is the hometown of Tinsley's Dem rival, Harry Teague. No further details were immediately available on the fundraiser.

"The vice president intends to work hard this cycle to return a Republican majority to Congress and he is looking forward to returning to New Mexico," Cheney spokesman Jamie Hennigan said.

Dick has his work cut out for him on that count, don't you think? Odd, too, that in a year when the GOP prez and VP candidates are trying to convince voters they're running to "change Washington" and throw out the crooked "do-nothing" bums who have been running things, one of the most notorious bums is coming to New Mexico to boost Tinsley (left). Of course they don't want to send the incredibly unpopular Bush to stump for GOP candidates, but I wonder why they think the venal Cheney is any better.

Why, just the other day one of Cheney's cronies at Halliburton plead guilty to bribery:

A former colleague of the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company.

Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade.

The guilty plea, announced yesterday, came after a four-year investigation by US attorneys and threatens to stir up old controversies just as eyes are trained on the Republican party convention. Mr Cheney, who pulled out of an address to the convention because of Hurricane Gustav earlier this week, led Halliburton from 1995 until returning to government in 2000. He had previously been Defence Secretary under the first President George Bush, and the links with Halliburton have been a constant thorn in the side of the current administration as the company has gone on to win billions of dollars of contracts in Iraq and other US military spheres.

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