The Times and the Brothers Krongard

Please, if you can, try to get solid purchase on this Times profile of the brothers Krongard, an attempt to de-problematize the very problematic relationship between the Inspector General of the State Department and his brother, an advisory board member of Blackwater, the State Department's most important and most controversial private contractor. Never mind that Howard Krongard clearly lied about when he knew of his brother's relationship with Blackwater, or that Howard Krongard scuttled inquiries into Blackwater by State Department investigators. More relevant, according to Scott Shane and the Times, is that "[t]he story is less about cozy nepotism than about family estrangement," that "Howard appears to be estranged from several family members," and that when Howard phoned his brother during Henry Waxman's hearing, "it was their first conversation in months."

From a distance, events might suggest that Mr. Prince chose to recruit Buzzy Krongard to curry favor with Howard Krongard and blunt any inquiry into Blackwater. But if that was Mr. Prince’s strategy, his intelligence was gravely flawed, according to people who know the family.

“Whatever issues I have with my brother," says Buzzy Krongard, "I don’t question his integrity.”

As ringingly convincing as Buzzy's endorsement of his brother is, I'm still confused. How is any supposed lack of coziness between the brothers Krongard ("why, they haven't phoned each other in months!") relevant to Howard Krongard's increasingly lengthy list of serious ethical lapses? Are we meant to believe, based on the word of some very fuzzy reporting and Howard's own brother, that Howard Krongard's obstructive and negligent behavior as Inspector General when it came to Blackwater is not as bad as it's been made out?

Memo to the New York Times: call this duck a duck already. If the Saga of the Brothers Krongard looks like yet another example of BushCo corruption conducted incompetently, then it probably is.