Things may be bumpy now for the Bush administration, but at least one of its policy priorities reached its logical conclusion.

Halliburton, the corporation that from Iraq to New Orleans has symbolized the Bush philosophy of outsourcing, has announced it’s outsourcing itself.

After years of being headquartered in Houston, it’s going Dubai-bye.

Possibly it was looking for a new location with a warm climate, convenient air connections and no Congress.

Ever since Sunday’s announcement that “The chairman, president and CEO will office from and be based in Dubai to run the company from the (United Arab Emirates),” there have been questions about what the transplanted Halliburton will owe to the United States. Others point out that since its previous CEO was Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton has given us so much already.

Of course, it’s also gotten quite a bit.

Halliburton has been awarded $19 billion in Pentagon contracts, many without competitive bidding, to supply troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, becoming almost the official caterer of the Global War on Terror. In February, federal investigators charged the company has been responsible for $2.7 billion of $10 billion in waste and overcharges in Iraq.

Issues have included repeated overcharging and providing U.S. troops with contaminated food and water. While summer in Dubai can be over 100 degrees, a congressional hearing room can be hotter.

Halliburton’s successes with the administration have not been limited to overseas ventures. Joe Allbaugh, a close Texas friend of the president, was the administration’s first head of FEMA, and then became a Halliburton lobbyist. After Katrina, the company was awarded multiple military and civilian cleanup contracts, while the president suspended laws requiring federal contractors to pay cleanup workers prevailing wages.

At least in Dubai, there won’t be those annoying labor laws. You can see why, in certain income brackets, the United Arab Emirates could turn into the United American Expatriates.

Still, the administration’s belief in outsourcing government work has remained strong. Last year, a contract for maintenance of Walter Reed Army Medical Center was taken from the Army and given to IAP Worldwide Services, run by two former Halliburton executives, over the Army’s objections.

Halliburton insists that the move to Dubai won’t change anything, that it will still have 4,000 employees in Houston and be incorporated in Delaware. It says it will still pay U.S. taxes – even if its headquarters building will now qualify for a Dubai homestead exemption – and will still be available for government contracts, although it is spinning off the subsidiary doing most of the Iraq business.

But in addition to being repositioned close to most of the world’s oil supply, the relocation has another advantage.

What with one thing and another, the United States isn’t terribly popular in the Middle East at the moment, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst of PVM Oil Associated in Vienna, told the Associated Press: “So they might want to get rid of their image as an American company.”

It’s one thing to make a bundle off the Iraq war. But it’s a lot to expect a company to also share the public relations hit from it. It’s nice to get that awkward “U.S.A.” off your corporate stationery.

Understandably, Halliburton’s decision to export itself to Dubai – although it will continue to accept American money – has stirred widespread indignation in Congress.

“This is an insult,” complained Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., “to the U.S. soldiers and taxpayers who paid the tab for their no-bid contracts and endured their overcharges all these years.”

Leahy is taking this too hard; Halliburton’s move to Dubai doesn’t mean it won’t still offer Americans those opportunities.

And there’s one possible aspect to Halliburton’s relocation that could build considerable U.S. support:

Maybe the company could take the vice president with it.