Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Maybe the Bushites thought if FEMA dragged its feet, everyone would forget. As always, they were wrong:

Despite a month-old pledge, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to reopen four of its biggest no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work and won't do so until the contracts are virtually complete. A promise to hire more minority-owned firms also is largely unfulfilled.

The no-bid contracts for temporary housing, worth up to $100 million each, were given to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. right after Katrina struck. Charges of favoritism helped prompt last month's pledge by FEMA acting director R. David Paulison, but now officials with the Homeland Security Department, which oversees FEMA, say the contracts won't be awarded again until February.

I'm sure the fact that the above-mentioned companies all have strong ties to Bush and the GOP has nothing to do with FEMA's failure to fulfill its pledge. Nothing at all.