Pentagon Watchdog Owns Cabin With Rumsfeld Pal

Although House Democrats have hardly been united in recent days, some are still capable of acting in unison. One excellent example: the Dems of Armed Services Committee, all 28 of them, have banded together to push panel chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) to reinstate a special subcommittee dedicated to oversight and investigations of the Pentagon.

The panel was shut down under the Republicans, they say, and it’s high time to restart it. Hunter, however, is mightily resisting the idea.

Any wonder why? Set aside his own troubles as a target in the Cunningham fraud investigation. According to POGO, Hunter — who’s never been a particularly toothy watchdog of Pentagon activities — has for several years co-owned a cabin in rural Virginia with a Rumsfeld confidante and senior Pentagon official.

For the past five years, Preston M. “Pete” Geren III has been kind of a top-shelf fix-it guy for Rumsfeld, POGO’s Jason Vest reports. From 2001 to 2005, Hunter’s co-homeowner was a special assistant to the Defense Secretary whose duties included “keeping Congress off Rumsfeld’s back,” according to one of Vest’s anonymous sources. In particular, Geren is said to have been tasked with quashing Hill interest in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Since then, Geren served briefly as secretary of the Air Force before taking the job of Undersecretary of the Army in February.

With friends like these, Hunter may wonder, who needs oversight?