Crony-paloozaI should have known

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Crony-palooza!

I should have known that a little digging into this Iraq contracting biz would bring me to uber-GOP-insider Haley Barbour. But I tend to be a touch naive about these things, as you can imagine.

Barbour of course is former chair of the RNC, former chair of President Bush’s campaign advisory committee in DC in 2000, and former just about everything else in the DC Republican party, as well being one of the priciest and most wired Republican lobbyists in town.

At the moment, in his spare time, Barbour’s running for governor of Mississippi. But his real digs are at his DC lobbying shop Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc.

Now, yesterday I told you how President Bush’s right-hand-man Joe Allbaugh has just set up a new outfit — New Bridge Strategies — to help companies get the sweetest contracts in Iraq. New Bridge, as their site says, is “your bridge to success in Iraq.”

But when you look more closely at New Bridge, of which Allbaugh is Chairman and Director, you start to see that New Bridge looks an awful lot like an outgrowth of Barbour Griffith and Rogers.

For one thing, the Vice President and Director of New Bridge is Ed Rogers — the same Ed Rogers who is Barbour’s partner in Barbour Griffith and Rogers.

Then there’s the third partner, Lanny Griffith. He’s Director at New Bridge and Chief Operating Officer at Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Then there’s former Ambassador Richard Burt. He’s ‘Director’ at New Bridge and ‘International Director’ at Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Needless to say, Allbaugh’s wife Diane is ‘of counsel’ at Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Isn’t it weird how that happens when you apply for a second job and all the dudes from your first job work at the new place too? Anyway …

Actually, you can see why it’s so convenient to work at both of these two places since they both happen to be located on the 10th floor of 1275 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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