Les Enfants Terrible

MORE REVELATIONS IN OIL-FOR-FOOD, and today it is Russia on the hot seat. You know, a couple of years ago when Norm Coleman voted against drilling in ANWAR, it never would have occured to me that I would someday refer to him as "The Pitbull." But Norm "The Pitbull" Coleman has learned his lessons well. When you have a bigger, meaner dog by the neck...don't let go.

The deal for Mr. Zhirinovsky, a nationalist and outspoken U.S. critic, was typical: The Senate investigators found that the party leader secretly was given the rights to 75.8 million barrels of discounted Iraqi oil from 1997 to 2002, which he could then resell to legitimate oil firms. Mr. Zhirinovsky and his party made an estimated $8.6 million on the scheme.

One unidentified Iraqi oil official, speaking to the Senate subcommittee, said, "Of course, Zhirinovsky makes a profit. That's the whole point."

The Senate report also details allotments totaling 90 million barrels of Iraqi oil to Alexander Voloshin, former head of the Kremlin's Presidential Council, and his top aides including Sergey Issakov.

Of course, obscene profits at the expense of Iraqi citizens well-being probably had nothing to do with Russia's stance on the war in Iraq. That would be a ludicrous charge against a government that simply embraced peace in the face of American imperialism. They are really heroes, if you think about it...long enough to convince yourself of that.