Senator Blocks 850 Air Force Promotions

The New York Times ^ | 06/09/03 | ERIC SCHMITT

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Can you kill this thread? There's already another one running.

[aristeides]

Did you know that Henry Wallace's running mate on the Progressive Party ticket of 1948 was Sen. Glen Taylor of Idaho?

[grapeape]

If one Senator can hold up the promotions of military officers than that rule needs to be changed. Just like the quarum rule in Texas. These things are stupid and waste time and money. That is what we need to do as political activists.

[CFC__VRWC]

So, 'dumping' Craig is a logical response?

Where in my post did I mention "dumping" Craig? I agree that people who are demanding his head (at this point in time) are overreacting, but surely you don't suggest that we should just keep our mouths shut and let this slide, do you? I'm aware that this kind of pork dealing goes on WAY too much - that makes it all the more important that we loudly make our disapproval known when the people engaging in it are made public, regardless of party affiliation.

Whether or not Craig deserves to be kicked out of office over this depends entirely on how his constituents feel. I wouldn't dump him over this, but I will say that someone needs to take him to the woodshed on this.

[JohnGalt]

I was not implying that you did, only reminding you the context of my post.

[CFC__VRWC]

Let me clarify - whether or not he deserves to be kicked out of office depends on how he reacts. If there's a big uproar and he just arrogantly blows it off (the standard response for a United States Senator in this day and age), then I probably would work to dump him, on the reasoning that he thinks he's above the rpeople he represents and therefore does not need to be attentive to their wants and needs.

[Radix]

Why don't they kill the other thread?

Please provide link to the other thread if you want this one taken down.

BTW, who are you? The Posting Police?

[CarryaBigStick]

There may be a little more to this than meets the eye. The C-130 now has the capability to deliver fire retardent with new modular retardent delivery systems that can be placed in the cargo hold and used with little no modification to the aircraft.

Idaho is a state that is blanketed with forests and is approaching another potentially dangerous fire season. Those C-130's could be very handy during a bad fire season. That may have been Senator Craigs' intent when he requested these planes to begin with - base closure issues are also a big reason to be sure.

Los Angeles county tried to get the Air Force to cough up a couple of moth-balled A-10's for conversion to light aerial fire tankers for urban wild fire fighting a couple of years ago but the Air Force refused in spite of the fact that they have entire squadrons of them in moth-balls in the AZ desert. The A-10 would be perfect for this role, but the Air Force won't give it up - in spite of the fact that the Air Force brass hates the A-10 (not sexy or zoomy enough).

Perception wins out over reality even in the military. I don't understand this reluctance over the de-militaration of a few unused aircraft. I guess the Air Force still expects the Soviets to send a thousand tanks through the Fulda Gap at any moment.

[husky ed]

This is the kind of behavior one expects from DemocRATs

This is the kind of behavior one expects out of career politicians who don't give a crap about the pion's.

[sharkhawk]

Larry Craig is one of the few solid conservatives in the Senate and you want to dump him over a silly local issue?

This is not a silly local issue. This is a Senator holding back military readiness over an issue of pork.

[Radix]

I just watched the ABC News (so called) report on this. It seemed to be critical of Senator Craig. That got my spider sense tingling. If ABC don't like it, then, I am clearly missing something.

[cksharks]

I not only would be ready to dump, but I would be ready to kick his ass over this "local issue". This is arrogance of the highest order. One of the reasons so many people hate the clintooooooooooooooooons is because of the shit they pulled with the military.If he held up my promotion I would be the first one trying to get his ass kicked out of the Senate.I could care less who the hell he is or what his record is.

[RJS1950]

This is not a "local" issue. I can tell you from 22+ years of experience that every time this type of thing is done (in the past by democraps) morale across the ranks and services go down because among other things they see themselves, their careers and their futures as pawns of any self-serving politician who happens to be voted in by usually less than a few hundred thousand voters of ONE out of FIFTY states.

[Oztrich Boy]

There may be a little more to this than meets the eye. ...Those C-130's could be very handy during a bad fire season. That may have been Senator Craigs' intent

Nope. Read the article. There are already 4 C-130s based at Boise.

The POS is doing it for votes, and needs to be slammed down hard. The DoD should announce the the Senator's nominees to the USAF Academy at Colorado Springs are likewise not going to be confirmed.

[white trash redneck]

This is the kind of behavior one expects out of career politicians who don't give a crap about the pion's.

Good clarification. Seems that career politicians tend to be RATs, but you're right, GOP careerists can be just as foul.

[glane]

This isn't a silly local issue. For the military personnel, it is a career and financial issue. This man is acting like a child who doesn't get to be team captain and takes his ball and goes home. The only people he is hurting are the fine people in the military who defend this country and have a job most of us don't want (heaven forbid we bring back the draft.).
Georgia