[Red Badger]

Love it when Libs fight each other!...........Hold my coat.....

[LRS]

RAT FIGHT!!!!!

[sittnick]

Gee, it's not often that I get to agree with Chris Dodd!

I am extremely uncomfortable with military gear being made by foreign conutries who may have no compunction against selling (or not selling) replacement parts, and even less about making the technology available to the CHiComs.

Unfortunately, Sikorsky's parent, United Technologies, is very cozy with the ChiComs as well.

[sittnick]

I also find it amusing that the ones getting on Dodd are those who directly stand to benefit. NY and Virginia (on subs) have fights with Connecticut regularly. I would like to see the opinion of a senator from Hawaii or Delaware or New Hamshire.

[FormerACLUmember]

Dodd, who I otherwise despise, has many legitimate national security points.

I support Dodd on this issue. Especially since he gets to stick it to two of the four most evil and despicable members of the US Senate, Chuckie Schumer and Hitler-y Clinton. (the other 2 are Boxer and Kennedy)

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

hundreds of defense jobs
$6.1 billion
23-helicopter contract

this looks like $250+ million a copy!

[Sunshine Sister]

CAT FIGHT! Yee Hawwwwwwwwwwwww!

[Truth29]

Am I just dense or does the article fail to identify the parent bill - the spending bill that was shelved?

[Inwoodian]

When times get really bad they eat their young.

[dwsmith]

I think Bush should demand Texas or MS be the base for production!

[hillary's_fat_a**]

Watch it, Dodd .... unless you want to die from Arkancide :).

[Non-Sequitur]

Twenty three helicopters for $6.1 billion comes to about a quarter of a billion dollars apiece. Are they made of platinum? In the meantime the troops in Iraq and Afganistan are flying machines that in many cases are older than they are. How many of those helicopters would $6.1 billion buy?

[F.J. Mitchell]

What must a helicopter be capable of to make it worth 250 million dollars ? Whatever it is has surely not even been thought of, much less researched and developed.

[Libloather]

'SNEAKY' CONN. SENATOR GOT 22G 'COPTER'BUTION
Sat Apr 9, 5:22 AM ET
By DEBORAH ORIN

WASHINGTON — Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd — who pulled a sneak attack to try to yank away from New York a $6.1 billion contract to build the new presidential helicopter — got nearly $22,000 in campaign cash from the Connecticut chopper firm that had wanted the deal.

Dodd infuriated Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) a few days ago by sneaking through, on voice vote, an amendment to try to kill the contract for an international partnership led by Lockheed Martin which beat out Connecticut-based Sikorsky.

His 2004 re-election campaign records show Dodd got $21,750 in campaign donations from employees of Sikorsky's parent company, United Technologies Corp., as well as $5,000 from the Teamsters Union, which represents the plant's workers.

The UTC donations included $2,000 from CEO George David, and $1,000 each from vice presidents Kent Brittan and William Bucknall.

A Dodd aide said his objection to the Pentagon decision to award the contract to Lockheed Martin is "on the merits" and has nothing to do with campaign contributions any more than New York officials would be influenced by receiving Lockheed Martin donations.

The deal means 750 jobs for upstate New York.

In an odd twist, officials of UTC have been calling other lawmakers to stress that they weren't behind Dodd's ploy and aren't trying to stop the awarding of the contact to Lockheed.