Government Contracts and the Revolving Door

You may know John Ashcroft (left) as the author of “Let the Eagle Soar” or you may know him as a former U.S. Attorney General.  In any case, he testified before Congress yesterday, defending a contract that could pay him as much as $52 million (over an 18-month period) to monitor Zimmer Holdings Inc. of Warsaw, Ind., a company that manufacturers replacement hips and knees.  According to STLToday.com (the Internet home of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Zimmer Holdings was one of four companies that agreed to pay $300 million to settle cases arising from a federal investigation.

Ashcroft’s Washington, D.C. based company (presumably The Ashcroft Group, LLC) was selected on a no-bid basis by New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who used to work for Mr. Ashcroft at the Department of Justice,  In his defense, Mr. Ashcroft pointed out that no taxpayer dollars were spent on the contract as the money paid to him is provided by the company being monitored.  So, it’s supposed to make us more comfortable with the quality of the monitoring that the monitor is paid millions of dollars by the party he’s supposed to monitor?  But then again, Mr. Ashcroft is a man of integrity, just like this guy.

[Jeremy Telman]