There may be another investigation into charges some employees at Halliburton overcharged the government for some work in Iraq. Here's how the White House responded yesterday to charges that the ordeal undermined the entire Iraqi reconstruction in spokesman Scott McClellan's daily briefing:

Q What does it say about the whole reconstruction of Iraq? Democrats are now saying that it casts a cloud over it. They would like to -- Democrats in Congress would like to see Congress regain oversight of the awarding of these contracts.

MR. McCLELLAN: You need to talk to the Department of Defense about specific contracts. But I think there is obviously a lot of election year politicking going on. I recognize that.

Q Can you just pass it off as politics?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead.

And McClellan took a question on another topic.

So there's not a lot of hand-wringing in the White House over the charges against Halliburton, including accusations that President Bush's Mars strategy is an attempt to score under-handed oil opportunities for Halliburton on the red planet.