Lest we forget: —

Howard Dean getting knocked off the cover of Newsweek by Saddam Hussein is not the only thing that got knocked out of the news.

Let us not forget that just before Saddam's capture became the news item that swamped out everything else, the big story was Halliburton's $61 million overcharge of the military for fuel and $67 million overcharge for food service to the military — and the questions about why Halliburton was given a no-bid contract for these and other services when they have a long history of overcharging the government for such services.

Saddam's capture taking over the sweet-spot in the news allows Cheney to crawl out from under his desk, at least until the news gets back to the issue. If, indeed, it ever does get back to the issue.

I'm not implying any hanky-panky here, but I'm sure there was a great gasp of relief in the upper circles in the Bush administration when the Halliburton story got eclipsed.

Don Firth