"The Cookie and Buzzy Show"

(Note: the nicknames in this account are hard to believe, but real . . .and strangely appropriate)

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been curious as to why the State Department's Inspector General Howard "Cookie" Krongard hasn't been cooperating with the Justice Department in their probe of the trigger happy Blackwater outfit's abuses in Iraq. Yesterday's hearing before that committee shed some light on the mystery: Cookie's brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, is a member of the "Blackwater Worldwide Advisory Board." A testy Cookie told the Committee, "one thing just came up [in the questioning] that really does bother me, and that was an allegation concerning my brother. . .I do not believe it is true that he is a member of the advisory board." Later, after a recess, Cookie backed down, and said brother Buzzy never told him about the conflict of interest. But Buzzy later told the blog site TPM Muckraker that "I had told my brother I was going on the advisory board", and he has been on that board since September 5. It looks like Cookie intended to give false testimony about the conflict of interest. This will only get better.

(illustration: The Simpsons' Itchy & Scratchy, role models for Cookie and Buzzy)