McCain Re-Emerges; Receives Thompson Endorsement (1999)

Wash. Post ^ | August 18, 1999 | Terry neal

[pissant]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who skipped the Iowa Republican straw poll and called it a sham, re-emerged on the political scene this week with a visit to California and speech today before a veterans group in Kansas City, Mo., designed to highlight his war hero background.

[ejonesie22]

Well it’s only fair...

Though I fear you may run out of Hunter material pretty quickly...

[deport]

He is under the delusion if he beats up Fred, Hunter will surge.

---

Hunter can’t even get on the some ballots to even be in the primary hunt.... He’s not gonna surge no matter how much the others are beat up. Hunter’s surge is occuring with the flushing out of the candidates to begin in 15 days in Iowa.

That Hunter fellar has failed to qualify for the ballot in the following primaries:

AR
D.C.
DE
IL
NJ
VA

[org.whodat]

Here a more current story for you:Ethics questions dog California congressman; Owned cabin with Air Force Secretary Miriam Raftery

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has come under fire from constituents for accepting nearly a quarter million dollars in campaign contributions from missile defense contractors over the past five years. Hunter has also drawn criticism for accepting $46,000 from un-indicted co-conspirators implicated in bribing Hunter’s friend and San Diego colleague, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who resigned from Congress after pleading guilty.

But Hunter’s ties to the defense industry go even deeper.

[NeoCaveman]

And I don’t think it is looking too good about (Hunter) getting on Ohio’s in time.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[org.whodat]

Here is another one:

The Project That Wouldn't Die Using earmarks, members of Congress kept money flowing to a local company that got $37 million for technology the military couldn't use.

By Charles R. Babcock Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 19, 2006; D01

Over the past decade Vibration & Sound Solutions Ltd., a small Alexandria defense contractor, has received a steady flow of federal contracts to work on "Project M" -- $37 million in all from annual "earmarks" by congressional supporters such as Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.).

Snip

Conkling said Hunter and Moran backed the new idea and he filled out an earmark form in Moran's office. "A ton of SEALs are getting cashiered for injuries on boats," said Hunter, whose district includes a major base for the elite Navy team. "So remedying it became important to me."

Heres the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800631_pf.html

[Rick.Donaldson]

Beat me to that remark, GO FRED!

[rineaux]

No one wants you banned. You were well missed when you took the last forced sabbatical.

[pissant]

There are more Hunter archives here than on any other candidate, perhaps save Rudy.

You need to brush up on them. I’ll give you a sampling:

Hunter making impression as a bad guy in Soviet Union press (Duncan Hunter Archives -1985)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865527/posts

Duncan Hunter Archives—Rep. Hunter Chosen President of American Security Council

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1895248/posts

Hunter goes to bat for (Ollie) North with Contra slides (Duncan Hunter archives -

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865643/posts

Hunter to lead colleagues to Europe for ‘Star Wars’ (Duncan Hunter/Reagan Archives- 1985)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865524/posts

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE IS IMPORTANT (Duncan Hunter Archives-1998)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862489/posts

Marines will honor lawmaker (Duncan Hunter Archives -1998)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1866668/posts

DO NOT SOCIALIZE HEALTH CARE (Duncan Hunter archives -1994)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1854000/posts

House Rebukes Clinton on China Satellite Export (Duncan Hunter Archives)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928966/posts

JOHN KERRY’S ACCUSATIONS AGAINST AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN VIETNAM (Duncan Hunter archives - 2004)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861442/posts

[pissant]

So Hunter being supported by our military contractors is unusual? ROFLMAO

[NormsRevenge]

I guess if Hunter wasn’t a representative in a state that has had major defense contractors there for years and didn’t have questionable donors on his list, as does almost every other rep around, then he just wouldn’t be as sullied as the rest of the group running or a target worth taking shots at.

Oh well, corruption, if proven in a court of law and not of public opinion, is what it is, but until proven as such in a court of law, besmirching ‘em thru mudslinging is as good an approach as any.

The rest of his record is of no import at that point it would seem. The mud hitting anywhere near the target is as good as a direct hit. jmo

[ravingnutter]

And who can forget this Hunter boondoggle:

Landings: Background on DP-2

Center for Defense Information: ABC News Investigative Videos on DP-2 Project

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science hearing conclusions:

During his testimony to the House Committee on Science at a previous hearing on the DP-2 in May 2001, duPont said the commercial airline industry including Boeing, Lockheed and Grumman did not invest in his concept of the DP-2 aircraft because they were skeptical of his ability to actually achieve success. Six years later, it appears the DP-2 program has accomplished very little.

“Congress – for the past many years – has permitted the DP-2 program to become Mr. duPont’s personal hobby, gambling away more than $63 million of taxpayers money on a technology that most experts believe has little to no hope of success. Expending any more time, money or resources on development of the DP-2 would simply be an effort in futility,” concluded Miller.

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology: DP-2 Hearing – June 12, 2007

Expert testimony and 20 years of Critical Design Reviews can be found at the links on that website. In addition, there is this little tidbit in the Charter:

In addition to the serious safety issues that have been called into question regarding the management of the DP-2 program, the Subcommittee has learned that questions regarding duPont’s financial management of the program have also emerged. According to a 2004 Department of Defense audit of the company, duPont Aerospace attempted to misallocate at least some of the Congressional funding it has received. The audit found that duPont billed the government nearly $7,000 in unallowable costs, including $1,700 for polo-shirts with duPont’s logo imprinted on them, nearly $2,000 for an annual company picnic and more than $3,000 for a family vacation on a cruise ship.

More on the DP-2:

Even Chistopher Cox no longer supports it:

Hunter said that Cunningham took only a minor role in pushing for the contract. He said that he and Cox – who he describes as “one of the smartest guys in Congress” – took the lead. Cox now says the funding for the aircraft should have been halted long ago. “What I supported was doing the testing to determine whether it could fly,” he told ABC News this week. “As soon as it failed to meet the test criteria, it should have been abandoned.”

Cunningham helped Hunter push for locally made jet

More links:

More on the Duncan Hunter/Duke Cunningham link:

POGO has obtained a May 1991 letter from Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California) and then-newly minted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to move DP-2 experimental aircraft testing forward despite "bureaucratic delays." It shows that Cunningham, within less than 5 months after becoming a Congressman, was already browbeating the Defense Department to move earmarked projects forward. And it shows that Hunter and Cunningham were deadset in 1991 on getting the troubled DP-2 through a critical bottleneck--testing--in the acquisition process, so procurement could begin.

1991 Cunningham/Hunter DP-2 Letter

And…it not only failed miserably, it dang near killed someone. Despite the absurd claims that recent tests were successful:

Prototypes have barely gotten off the ground in hover tests and suffered damage from “hard landings” and other mishaps.

In a November 2004 test, the plane suffered structure failure “due to engineering deficiencies,” the report said, citing a NASA review. A pilot was in the cockpit at the time – a violation of safety protocols established for the test. As the cabin filled with hot exhaust and composite dust, the pilot was forced to escape through a cabin window because the main door was jammed shut.

Hunter defends support for jet: Pentagon rejected aircraft built by campaign donor

In the first test, the jet rose awkwardly from the rear first – seemingly balancing for a few seconds on the wheel beneath its nose – and then hovered in the air for 45 seconds, gliding slowly from side to side before jolting abruptly to the ground. In the second test, the takeoff was much smoother and there was less side-to-side movement, but the landing was equally abrupt.

Pricey aircraft makes two brief flights: Project has been called boondoggle

It has never hovered successfully and has suffered four mishaps in its attempts to do so. During one such attempt, a test pilot was aboard in violation of safety protocols, according to House Science Committee Democrats but he was unharmed. Reviews by NASA, the Navy and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have found the technology unworkable and the program ill-managed.

"To continue to fund it would be an insult to the aerospace industry at large and to the taxpayers," testified John Eney, former head of the aircraft conceptual design group at the Naval Air Development Center Naval Air Systems Command, who led an onsite review of the program in 1999.

Lawmakers Argue Over Aircraft Endeavor

[ejonesie22]

I was talking about from all sources, not just FR.

Sorry I was not more clear.

[pissant]

Hmmmmm. Compare that earmark to these:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1898585/posts

[pissant]

Where do you think it came from, thin air? They are all tied to old media outlets and/or the congressional record

[deport]

And I don’t think it is looking too good about (Hunter) getting on Ohio’s in time.

---

Don't know about Ohio but the deadline is Jan. 4, 2008.

15 days and selection process begins. I know some will tell you that different democrats [Kerry, Clinton, Carter, etc] have come from the back of the pack to win but then that was the democrat primary not the republican. Let the weeding process begin and for some they have just about weeded themselves out to the process.

[ejonesie22]

Of course.

[pissant]

Pulling the BS out of your ear again.

Who do you trust. Brad Miller or Duncan Hunter?

[pissant]

Brad Miller:

“For four years, patriotic Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, have anguished over events in Iraq, and given deep and prayerful thought to alternatives. But the Bush Administration dismissed and insulted dissenters, and often made fierce attempts to discredit them. Not even General Eric Shinseki, the Chief of Staff of the Army, or James Baker, Secretary of State for the first President Bush, were spared. And the Bush Administration has treated criticisms of Members of Congress as meddling, as sticking our nose in their war. House Democrats have offered plan after plan to alter our course in Iraq, and House Republicans greeted every plan with strident attack.” (February 16, 2007)

[NeoCaveman]

Don't know about Ohio but the deadline is Jan. 4, 2008.

Likely to make the ballot, have enough signatures, delegates etc. in order

1. Fred
2. Mitt
3. Rudy
4. Paul
5. Huckabee
6. McCain - and I think the McCain & Huck guys are sweating it.

[deport]

Well the fact remains you can’t keep missing ballot qualifying and expect to win the primary. Ohio would bring the missed delegate opportunity of over 300 and that a huge chunk of the 1100+ needed to win...... Some wannabe candidates just can’t put an orgainzation together to compete on the National level. The Paul orgainzation has amazed me with it’s efforts.....