From our 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' file, we have news that Senate Republicans followed up their rejection of a bill last week to penalize corrupt companies like Halliburton, with a vote today against another measure that would have formed an oversight committee to investigate defense-contractor fraud.

With only 44 votes in favor, the second such bill -- also sponsored by Byron Dorgan (D-ND) -- went down in flames 52-44, with Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) the only GOP senator voting for the bill's passage.

S.Amdt. 4292 would have established "…a special committee of the Senate to investigate the awarding and carrying out of contracts to conduct activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism."

Senate Republicans last week shot down by a 55-43 vote, an amendment to strictly penalize contractors caught defrauding the government, with every single Republican senator voting to let corrupt defense contractors off the hook for cheating the troops and the American people.

"A lot of people are making a lot of money, spent by this Congress, in support of our soldiers who are at war, and we have some contractors who are not playing straight with the soldiers or the American people," said Dorgan on the Senate floor.

Dorgan and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) had sent a letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) in May asking him to start an investigation into allegations of defense-contractor abuses in Iraq contracts.

"These matters fall clearly within your committee’s jurisdiction, and they have a direct bearing on our troops’ mission and safety in Iraq, as well as on the use of taxpayer dollars," said the Dorgan-Durbin letter to Warner. "In the alternative, we would hope that you would support the creation of a special committee of the Senate — modeled after the Truman Committee during World War II — to conduct oversight hearings on Iraq contracting."

Durbin talked more about it on the Senate floor on Friday.

"I don't understand why there isn't a sense of outrage in this Congress on a bipartisan basis, on both sides of the aisle, that we are not only being ripped off as taxpayers by these no-bid contracts but that we are shortchanging these men and women who are risking their lives while we stand in the comfort and safety of this Senate," said the Illinois Democrat. "I know Halliburton is a big political force in this town. I know in some quarters you are not supposed to question Halliburton. This is some sacred institution politically. I don't buy it. I count the soldiers that are putting their lives on the line to be much more sacred and much more valuable than any big, huge, no-bid corporation."

Unfortunately, the Republican majority in the Senate doesn't agree with him.

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com