FRACTIOUS FRIDAY

In case you missed it, here's another reason to throw the bums out: The Los Angeles Times reports it has obtained documents showing that Halliburton, Bunker Boy's old company, won a lucrative extension of its no-bid military contract after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did an end-run around its own chief contracting officer, who objected to the proposal in vivid, handwritten notes.

Times reporter T. Christian Miller quotes documents for the first time showing that chief contracting officer Bunnatine Greenhouse wrote her objections on a version of the $165-million extension proposal. She scrawled comments such as: "I cannot approve this"; "Incorrect!"; "No! How!"; and "Not a valid reason."

After Greenhouse raised her objections, she was threatened with demotion. She nonetheless recorded her complaints in a letter her lawyer wrote to acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee. As reported in the Times and elsewhere, Halliburton is being probed by the FBI in an expanded investigation of alleged company overcharges of millions of dollars for fuel deliveries in Iraq.

Halliburton's response to the Greenhouse case is the usual. The company blames politics. "On the overall issues, the old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election," a spokeswoman is quoted as saying.

"But," Miller writes, "the previously undisclosed documents are part of a growing body of evidence indicating unusual treatment was given to government contracts won by the Houston-based firm.

"Career civil servants repeatedly raised objections to contracting decisions that benefited Halliburton, only to be overruled by higher-ups."