We know big-time Bush fundraisers are on board with Joe... big-time. But what other characters and nefarious multinational interests are funding Ten-Million-Dollar Joe's surreptitious slimy attacks, his Peter Pan Joementum tour bus, and his 4,000-strong LieberYouth army for election day (at $60 a day, that would be $240,000 for election day alone)?

The answer? Companies with no-bid Iraq contracts like Bechtel:



No wonder Joe doesn't want to talk about the war... even oversight of the war. Without the obscene amount he's raking in from companies like Bechtel (which was dropped from an Iraqi reconstruction project last week after an audit proved they bilked U.S. taxpayers out of millions), he couldn't pay the campaign staff he charges with avoiding discussion of the war at all costs.

Update: Apparently Lieberman is so afraid of talking about Iraq that, this morning, he pulled out of an already agreed-to debate with Ned Lamont this weekend moderated by Mark Davis of WTNH, again proving he respects the local press as much as he respects the opinion of Connecticut Democrats.

Word is he may instead choose to go on Meet the Press with his good friend Tim Russert serving up softballs.