Over the past few weeks, Republican Party leaders such as Marc Racicot and Ed Gillespie have worked to handily dismiss reports circulating in Washington that Vice President Dick Cheney's inclusion on the 2004 Republican ticket was beginning to be seen as a weak spot for the Bush campaign. Party chairmen had everybody's favorite Republican, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, come forth in support of his old friend: "My fervent wish is that it remains the way it is, and that I believe Vice President Cheney's in good health and I think he's been a great Vice President."

Regarding his relationship with the President, Cheney himself asserted, "He's asked me to serve again, and I said I'd be happy to do that, and I think that will be the ticket in 2004."

And in related news, today's Financial Times includes the following report ("Halliburton won contract after Pentagon warning"):

Halliburton, the oil services company formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, was awarded a $1.2bn (�660m) contract in Iraq just three days after Pentagon auditors warned about "systemic" problems in its cost controls.

The warning was contained in a memo the Pentagon's defence contract audit agency sent on January 13 to the US Army Corps of Engineers, citing deficiencies in Halliburton's contracting proposals and questioning the company's ability to supply "fair and reasonable prices".

"We recommend that you contact us to ascertain the status of [Halliburton's] estimating system prior to entering into future negotiations," the memo said.

The company informed the Pentagon on January 15 that its Kellogg Brown & Root division had overcharged the US government by $6m on a separate contract to supply US troops. Despite the admission, the following day the Corps of Engineers gave KBR a $1.2bn contract to rebuild oilfields in southern Iraq.