Bush can use the fraud angle to show that Saddam was beating the UN sanctions (or as Bush already said yesterday, that he was 'gaming the system,') to validate the timing of the war. He can also use it to dismantle Kerry's claim that he can bring allies on board as well as his charge that Bush failed the global test. Some takes on the report & the scandal here and here and here. Bush will have to delicately avoid coming down on the countries that were heavily involved in the scandal, lest he put off our allies as well.
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I don't recall at any point before the war that the administration said we had to go to war at that time to head off U.N. profiteering from the Oil-for-Food program (or from U.S. oil companies' profiteering - "Report Cites U.S. Profits in Sale of Iraqi Oil Under Hussein", NY Times, 10.9.04).
You're right. Oil for Food was not used as a rationale for going to war. However, everytime Kerry suggests that containment was working, this scandal proves otherwise. How would a president use the Oil for Food scandals (even with solid evidence to back him up) to build support among our allies? It's a little embarrassing to see U.S. companies involved, but it's dynamite for France, Russia and China. The president has to walk a fine line with his rhetoric.
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