Shouldn't The Republicans Be Asking This Question?

Excuse me for thinking this, but really, I thought repulbicans were the voice for responsible use of taxpayer dollars. No? Shouldn't they be holding the W, Rove and Co accountable for fraudulent use of our money? Just because corruption existed in the "prior" regime does not rellinquish the W, Rove and Co from the job of stopping corruption now. In fact, aren't we supposed to be doing it differently than Saddam did it?

Q The President mentioned corruption. How much in American taxpayer money is being wasted on corruption in Iraq?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, in terms of updates, our military and I think our State Department provides regular updates. I didn't bring a figure with me that could pinpoint any of that. I don't know if there's a figure on that or not. But one of the --

Q -- certain percentage being wasted on corruption.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, one of the points the President emphasized about a young democracy -- and this applies to young democracies around the world -- is that it faces problems. Democracy, as the President said, is difficult and it's challenging when you're helping to build an emerging democracy, and you face problems like this in emerging democracies, problems of corruption. And that's why the President emphasized we need to have transparency and openness. That's why we've helped the Iraqi leaders, the Iraqi government that was elected by its people, to set up an auditing board and to set up ways to investigate corruption and hold people to account so that that money isn't being spent improperly.

The Iraqi citizens, I think, expect the money to be spent wisely. I know the American people expect that our dollars be spent wisely. If there's problems, we investigate it; and if there are problems with Iraqi money, they are now investigating. They're learning the importance of cracking down on corruption. There was widespread corruption and fraud, I think, in the previous regime. That was the nature of -- one of the aspects that defined the nature of the regime. And they put -- what the regime did was take the money and use it to build palaces and not to help the citizens of its country.