[Rubber_Duckie_27]

I may be a moron here, but how do those morons in the People's Republic of Massachusetts have a thing to do with keeping EB in business in Connecticut/Rhose Island? Our congressman from the district that includes Groton is a Republican (finally!) - Simmons was a Vietnam vet and army Reservist, and served in the CIA for 10 years. He's pretty decent on issues involving the military.

The Jimmy Carter should be a good boat on paper if she ends up with the capabilities she's supposed to have. Still, I've heard stories about the Seawolf being called "Building 21" because she's so rarely at sea due to maintenance issues. The Seawolf class in general seems overpriced for what you get...then again their only purpose was keeping EB running until the Viriginia class started up.

[Pan_Yan]

My apologies. I should have broadened the scope to be the New England congressional delegation. Thats the problem with some of my tyraids. They can be like a shotgun blast with the eyes squeezed shut.

To be honest, General Dynamics is headquartered in Virginia, which has caused John Warner no small amount of anguish, since Newport News is the states largest employer.

On a side note, do you remember when Electric Boat had to scrap the first two Seawolf hulls because they put them together with the wrong welding rods? The USS Greeneville was one of the prototypes for a lot of the Seawolf equipment, so we got some pretty good info on how things were going up there.

[BluH2o]

Our congressman from the district that includes Groton is a Republican (finally!) - Simmons was a Vietnam vet and army Reservist, and served in the CIA for 10 years.

You're forgetting Connecticut's senior Senator Chris Dodd. Dodd's a long time friend of the Kennedy clan ... in fact his father was very close to Joe Kennedy, and that goes way back to pre-WWII. At one point I was on a nodding acquaintance terms with Chris Dodd ... he wintered his sailboat in the same Marina that I had mine. At that time, pre-Clinton, I was apolitical for the most part, so his party affiliation was of no concern ... I don't remember specifically, but I believe I voted for him once while residing in CT.