Senator Shelby of Alabama Puts France and Airbus Ahead of America and Boeing
by Bruce Webb
Would that have been a fair headline for the following story: Richard Shelby Puts Hold On President Obama’s Nomineesl? Because the facts are pretty clear, Shelby placed these holds mainly because of concerns over as Politico delicately puts it “Pentagon’s bidding process for air-to-air refueling tankers”. We can put that a little more starkly. The Pentagon wants to buy a replacement of much of its KC-135 Air Tanker fleet. You can read the background in this Wiki article KC-X but it really comes down to the following question. Are we going to buy these planes from Boeing or from a consortium of AEDS/Lockheed where AEDS is better known to Americans as AirBus? In other words American Boeing 767 or Old Europe Airbus A-330?
Now the actual question is deeper than that. Boeing outsources a lot of its work overseas and the Airbus tankers would be assembled in Alabama, hence Shelby’s interest but my question is this. If in 2007 Senator Barbara Boxer had stepped in and put a hold on every single Bush nominee in the interest of keeping a slice of the profits in the hands of California based Lockheed would Fox News and the Republican noise machine just have let it go? Or would the airways be full of screams and cries about how ‘San Francisco liberal’ Barbara Boxer was simply selling out America in favor of a bunch of Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys?
Shelby single-handedly decided to hold the Federal Government hostage so that a U.S. military contract would be awarded to a foreign country, worse yet that country is France. But don’t expect that to be the lead at Fox, even the stories in the rest of the MSM seem oddly resistant to putting the words “European” or “Airbus” into their stories. Might make a Republican look bad or something, maybe even unpatriotic. Have the Teabaggers caught wind of this yet?
This story has a local angle to it in that the 767 is assembled just over the hill from where I sit in Everett Wa and we are talking a lot of really good paying jobs for a lot of years here, so this is a hot topic around here. I am a little more agnostic about it, the contract is structured to keep jobs in America either way, the question is whether those jobs show up in Western Washington State or in Southern California and Alabama and I wouldn’t expect the readership of this blog to get exercised over that. But the real question is why the patriotism card only gets pulled out against Democrats? Six weeks after an attempted airplane bombing Republicans were successful in getting a supremely qualified person to withdraw his name from consideration to head TSA. Was their heavy backlash from Talk Radio? Or any backlash for that matter? Well no, as always IOKIYAAR
Bruce,
But the real question is why the patriotism card only gets pulled out against Democrats?
Because many of the democrats, even those with exemplary service records are suspect on their intent to do what’s in the best interest for our national defense. For example, take Charles Rangel, Korean war Veteran, this guy wants to reinstate the draft so the parents of those drated won’t let our Military send them to war. I don’t see how this could possibly improve our ability to wage war as a country.
A better example for you to have made would be for Nancy Pelosi to ground all our taker fleet to prevent us from being able to project power. That seems more fitting for a left leaning California San Francisco Liberal — and it would get her on Hannity’s show, for sure.
How about just impeaching the dumb SOB? His past transgressions include passing classified information to Fox News. AFAICS he’s hardly an asset to either the United States or the Republican Party.
Nice dodge there cantab, no answer to the question in particular. Where does this impression get re-inforced??? Oh…Fox? Hmmmm. (Also, give us a link).
Rdan,
No dodge. I think you have a problem recognizing the chicken from the egg. Fox exists because liberal media bias left many Americans feeling they were not being served well. Fox stepped in to fill the gap.
Also, give us a link
Rangel on the draft (remember he came up with this during the Bush administation which was a period of tranquility on the college campus because students were not being drafted as they were during the Vietnam war).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111900376_pf.html
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.
Where does this impression get re-inforced??? Oh…Fox? Hmmmm.
Lots of views gets re-inforced in lots of places — any reason to make this observation on Fox rather than MSNBC, the New York Times, or some of the leftwing shows on PBS?
No….you started it. I find lots of BS flung over the airwaves via TV set or radio. I find lots of Congress critters quite near sighted and self serving, comfortable in their jobs and not wanting to move back home. The patriot card is played by whom…and if so, does it resonate back on them moreso because they played it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704194504575030990986093742.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEThirdNews
You can find a Republican for me. Nice game we can play, but just a game. I don’t want to play in comments here. BTW, I had found this to play the game of SS and entitlements not having enough fees and commisssions attached to the program to satisfy the WSJ. Another game to play I think.
Cantab you argument is circular: liberals are suspect because you suspect liberals. Sorry beliefs are not self-validating.
As to Rangel he was working off simple historical observation. Support for the Vietnam War remained high among the middle class right up to the point that most exemptions and deferrals were eliminated. It was not that the war situation was more desperate in 1970 than 1966, on a pure military basis things had improved. It was just that in 1966 you could keep your kid out of war as long as you could find some liberal arts college to stash him in. And if he flunked out of an elite school you could enroll him in a middling school, if he flunked out of that there was always some school that would take any kid that could pay the tuition.
When instead they went to a lottery system and so exposed those middle class kids to random chances of ending up in a rice paddy support for the war dropped across the board. It wasn’t because the Archie Bunkers of this world started listening to the Meatheads, instead they feared their kid would end up going to Southeast Asia and coming home in a box.
This is what made the 101st Fighting Keyboardists so despicable in this war. Max Blumenthal did some interviews as a Young Conservative meeting back at the height of the war. He found universal and fervent support for the war matched only by the fervency of the explanations why they personally had not volunteered. It seems like Dick Cheney that they all had “other priorities”. Rangel, a decorated combat veteran simply called out the Chickenshits who true to their natures squawked, scurried and hid.
Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, a pretty good description of most of the younger slice of the pro-war population. I will never forgive that fuckwad Andrew Sullivan for excusing the fact that people like him were not actually fighting and were indifferent to the death count of those who were. After all soldiers were simply “Servants of civil masters”. There’s but to do and die while I sit back and earn millions pontificating about the glory and wonder of it all.
How does calling Chickenshit War Hawks out on their cowardice make Rangel unpatriotic? Because you feel a little guilty about handing around in Cambridge rather than carrying a rifle in Ramallah?
“I don’t see how this could possibly improve our ability to wage war as a country.”
Well of course it would. Conservatives continually argue that everything flows to people who have a skill premium. In World War II when we needed talent to build new technology or to staff important staff positions we just drafted them. Why would sheltering the self described skill players by limiting war fighting to volunteers help us fight wars? Only if you don’t believe in the concept of shared sacrifice to start with does you position make sense. You want the ability to fight wars at will, but not any requirement to either pay for them or fight in them. A draft would certainly add to our ability to fight a war or wars, it would just subtract from our willingness to do so. You have to be pretty morally depraved to argue for just wars while claiming objector rights from participation. Depraved or cowardly.
“A better example for you to have made would be for Nancy Pelosi to ground all our taker fleet to prevent us from being able to project power.”
Well that is a strawman argument. The Speaker of the House has no such powers and absent a veto proof House and Senate no ability to cut funding in that way. And if 67 Senators and a similar proportion of Congressmen could be induced to cut funding in that fashion that would just be an exercise of rights explicitly granted to them by the Constitution.
Art. 1 Section 8 “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;”
There is no exception there saying “except during times that the President is exercising his powers under Article II Sec II”. Of course Bush famously said about the Constitution “It is nothing but a God Damn piece of paper” and the First Amendment and U.S. libel laws allows jerks to say just about anything about a public figure like the Speaker of the House, so making shit up about Pelosi is protected speech. Still kind of despicable, but something we are used to from the bellowers of Fox and their faithful followers.
Conservatives be definition are supposed to be wary of empowering government. Republics forced to depend on a citizen army are less feared then governments that relies on paid mercenaries. Imagine kent state with blackwater rather then the national gaurd? If the American people had a little more skin in the game they would likely be more cautions in foriegn adventure as well. Maybe if presidents daughters had to serve as field whores for the US army the would be more cautious.
Guys who lack balls to go toe to toe, should be ridiculed as the contemptable little cuckholds they are when they rattle sabors.
Neo conmen want to reward air bus with the contract in an attempt to draw nato contries into a stronger milatary alliance, and they got the most increadible bunch rubes at there disposal. Christian Zionists. Nowhere does Jesus say that they are supposed to help the Pharasees kill there multitudenous eniemies, but just rattle their cage and they start snarling.
Cursed,
Richard Shelby right or wrong wants to bring jobs back to the people he represents. Is that a big surpise to you? The way this thing has gone back and forth, now landing in a blue state with the president and the congress going blue the whole thing stinks of politics.
Wow, they can already refuel those computerized death machines in the air. How fantastic.
Now, stop and think, why would any one sane human build an airplane when a rocket can be fired from hundreds of miles away and targeted accurately.
Second why on earth are there air fuelers at all? Like we don’t have airfields all over the world?
Gee, this is as brilliant as those super submarines that have successfully killed a couple of Japanese fisherman when George the Genius let his drunken texas playmates play submarine with armed subs out of Hawaii. Yep, need a couple trillion more for the waste program called “defense and intelligence.”
Frankly I really don’t care what money is wasted on. As long as my pension check doesn’t bounce.
All defense personnel, war profiteers, merchants of death, CI lying A personnel are all on highly overpaid welfare.
It the lady from Washington that lives over the hill from Boeing cares to do some research there is a book out there that analyses Boeing. Conclusion, Boeing was bankrupt in the early 1930s and has never turned a legitimate profit. It has been on the backs of the taxpayers ever since. Send everyone who “works” at Boeing home with full pay and benefits and an agreement to never work again. Would save several billions per week.
Boeing lost the original contract because their executives commited crimes in the aquistion of the contract. Any loon want to argue that this a lie or spin from Fox?
Darleen A. Druyun,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darleen_Druyun
In May 2003, the United States Air Force announced it would lease 100 KC-767 tankers to replace the oldest 136 of its KC-135s. The 10 year lease would give the USAF the option to purchase the aircraft at the end of the contract. In September 2003, responding to critics who argued that the lease was vastly more expensive than an outright purchase, the United States Department of Defense announced a revised lease. In November 2003, the Air Force decided it would lease 20 KC-767 aircraft and purchase 80 tankers.[2]
Buying one KC-767 outright costs $150 million. The contract called for 100 aircraft being purchased or leased at an aggregate price of $26 bn, or $260 mn per plane. Therefore, the contract, if it had been executed, would have forced the DOD to pay Boeing much more money for each plane than it would have had to if the aircraft were purchased individually.
In December 2003, the Pentagon announced the project was to be frozen while an investigation of allegations of corruption by Druyun (who had moved to Boeing in January 2003) was begun. Druyun pleaded guilty to inflating the price of the contract to favor her future employer and to passing information on the competing Airbus A330 MRTT bid (from EADS). In October 2004, she was sentenced to nine months in jail for corruption, fined $5,000, given three years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service. She began her prison term on January 5, 2005[3]. She was released from prison on September 30, 2005. The ramifications extended to Boeing CFO Michael M. Sears, who was fired from Boeing, and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned. On February 18, 2005, Sears was sentenced to four months in prison. Boeing ended up paying a $615 million fine for their involvement.[4] According to The Federal Times, Darleen Druyun will still be receiving a federal pension.[3]
Jets suck up a lot of fuel. I don’t think a fighter could even fly half-way across the Atlantic. And long range bombers have to circle on station for extended periods and need refueling on the way in and on the way back.
We have had air to air refueling for decades now, it is not always just as easy as dropping in on some friendly country and grabbing some gas.
And I ain’t no lady pal.
I don’t care what that books says, Boeing has had its up and downs over the years and draws a lot of money from its Defense and Space wings, but anyone who thinks they have not made a legitimate profit off the 707, 727, 737, 747, 767 over the years doesn’t know anything at all. A few of those models have been sold to the military over the years but a huge proportion of major world airlines fly Boeing, the 707 pretty much dominated its era and the 747 its.
Lots of companies were in trouble in the 1930s. That is why they call it the Great Depression. And lots of companies got their main start selling shit to the military, IBM, Boeing, Kaiser Aluminum being among them, but that does not mean the entire electronics, aviation, and metals industry has been on the backs of taxpayers. Try again.
Cantab you goof, Bush awarded the contract to Boeing the first time around. It just turned out there was some criminal fraud on both the Boeing and Bush Administration side and they had to send a couple of people from each to federal prison.
At which time they reopened the contract and awarded it to Airbus, only to have Boeing successfully appeal that. Boeing won that appeal in June of 2008 when a guy named Bush was in the WH. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2008/0619/p25s23-usmi.html
Of course it stinks of politics, it is a huge military contract, they always stink of politics. But your sly little attempt to pin this on a blue president is simple bullshit, the decision making to date all came under Bush.
Nice try but facts, including dates are stubborn things.
Maybe the Administration could pacify Sen. Richard “Porker” Shelby if Obama offered to name yet another Alabama building or highway after him. Then Sen. Shelby could go back to his rants against big gubmint spending. Alabama has to be ashamed of the fact that they have the two of the biggest turdheads in Congress representing them.
And the game of wackem continues. The point was that if some democrat was holding nominees hostage in order to funnel jobs locally, the popular by ideological demand media would be calling the democrat unpatriotic for a), holding up THE PRESIDENT’S, THE COMMANDER AND CHIEF’S nominees for personal gain (or do you know disavow public choice theory); and b), for further delaying a defence contract which puts the military in logistical jeopardy which puts the ability of Merica to project its power globally. You say this ok because democrats are not patriotic. I agree being smart is unpatriotic in Merica today. Apparently hell bent on war and thuggery is the only way to show your love of America.
The “porker” does vote the right way on immigration. It doesn’t do any good to bring any pork home if you invite all the worlds huddled masses to the table.
Travis,
And the game of wackem continues.
Aren’t you calling Senator Shelby a traitor in a round about weaselish way.
Slugs,
Maybe the Administration could pacify Sen. Richard “Porker” Shelby if Obama offered to name yet another Alabama building or highway after him.
Is it the scotch talking? If the tanker is going to be built anyway then the issue is not about pork (getting this wrong is why I think you may have knocked down a few cocktails) but rather on who is going to get the contract. The Boeing company had two of their executives arrested and sent to jail for crimes relating to illegally manipulating the bidding process. I don’t know about you with sitting behind the haze of all those cocktails but I think a fair penalty for Boeing is that they lose this one contract. I generally like this company but the punishment seems to fit the crime.
Now they did lose the contract but with the democrats winning majorities in the house and senate all of a sudden the old raz-ma-taz is pulled and the contract headed back to blue Washington. This has made Shelby go ballistic. The Senator has a point, although the end result is not a healthy one.
Slugs,
Maybe the Administration could pacify Sen. Richard “Porker” Shelby if Obama offered to name yet another Alabama building or highway after him.
Is it the scotch talking? If the tanker is going to be built anyway then the issue is not about pork (getting this wrong is why I think you may have knocked down a few cocktails) but rather on who is going to get the contract. The Boeing company had two of their executives arrested and sent to jail for crimes relating to illegally manipulating the bidding process. I don’t know about you, perhaps sitting behind the haze of all those cocktails, but I think a fair penalty for Boeing is that they lose this one contract. I generally like this company but the punishment seems to fit the crime.
Now they did lose the contract but with the democrats winning majorities in the house and senate all of a sudden the old raz-ma-taz is pulled and the contract headed back to blue Washington. This has made Shelby go ballistic. The Senator has a point, although the end result is not a healthy one.
Bruce,
Nice try but facts, including dates are stubborn things.
I’m not excusing Boeing because they committed crimes during the Bush administration, and i’m not excusing those with oversight over the procurement process, and at the end of the day, Bush was the cheif executive. But you can’t stop all bad behavior. Its a sure thing the people in the Obama administration working without support of Obama are either committing crimes or planning them tonight even as we pleasantly exchange posts. When you find the crime you have to punish those involved.
So do you think Boeing losing the contract for their crimes is a fair or overly harsh penalty.
I deleted a post to you by mistake, so just take it on faith that I refuted what you just said.
Cantab Druyan was a Bush Administration employee at the point she committed her crimes.
Cantab you mean in the way Republicans called triple amputee war hero Max Cleland a traitor by morphing his face into Bin Laden’s during the 2004 campaignand claiming that his and Kerry’s medals were faked? Given the Swift Boat campaign why is calling Shelby a traitor out of bounds. If so why? The Right has said worse about Obama and many Dems why are so sensitive because the opposing pitchers are throwing some heat up and tight?
By the standards applied by the Right from September 12th 2001 Shelby is objectively pro-French and so an enemy of Freedom. Is your memory so short that you forgot that the Republican controlled Senate, including Shelby insisted that French Fries be removed from the menu of the Senate Dining Room in favor of Freedom Fries?
You missed the whole point of this post. How do you justify the double standard?
Bruce,
Cantab Druyan was a Bush Administration employee at the point she committed her crimes.
So why are you carrying water for Boeing
Cantab for a guy who is reported to spend a lot of time in Cambridge pubs you are a little free is tossing around the cocktail jibe. It is only in the belief that you are half crocked most of the time that keeps me from hitting the delete button. I drink some too and somehow doubt you do much time as a teatotalling Southern Baptist deacon.
To repeat the decision to sustain the appeal was made by the Bush Administration in June 2008. And the original misconduct was conducted by a Bush Aministration political appointee.
Pure comedy gold.
Was there a homework eating dog anywhere in the vicinity?
Why carry water? At one level for the same reason Shelby is, the contract award to Boeing means a whole bunch of jobs here.
But the main point is that Max Clelands attempts to protest Union busting were dubbed as treason and being objectively pro terrorism while Shelby’s attempts to protect a non-union foreign corporation get a free pass.
In 2003 supporting France on anything was clear treason and lender support to the enemies of Freedom. Now Republicans just accept that when it comes to them they get a free pass. Exactly when did directing billions of dollars of defense contract to Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys become okay for the Right Wing? These are not my labels, they were freely deployed by the Right back in the day. Now you guys clutch your pearls and grab for the smelling salts.
Bruce,
But you agree that the contract is not pork don’t you? The tankers are pretty old after all.
Bruce – my bet is that he found some quote by some liberal that states something that more or less fits with his world view. And that refutes what you just said. Take it on faith.
I like this blog and i well viset agen thank you
Cantab,
The central issue isn’t whether the tankers should be built by Boeing or AirBus. That’s just background noise. The real issue is Sen. Shelby’s behavior and willingness to freeze the people’s business merely because Sen. Shelby wants to throw a temper tantrum. And Shelby threw another temper tantrum recently over NASA’s man-to-the-moon project. Sen. Shelby is exceptionally conceited even by the standards of a congress critter. He believes tha the world revolves around him. That was my point about the Administration offering to name another govt building or highway project after him. Seriously, take a tour across northern Alabama sometime and check out all of the “Richard Shelby” this and that projects all over the place. While touring you might even try driving across that I-565 10 lane highway to nowhere pork project that Shelby helped bring home to the voters…all the while railing against govt waste.
As to Sen. Shelby possibly being unpatriotic, aside from the fact that he does come from the Old Confederacy, there are other reasons to question Shelby’s loyalty to anything greater than himself. For example, he first won election in 1986 as a Democrat when the Democrats took back control of the Senate after the 1980 loss. He later became a Republican exactly one day after the Democrats lost control of the Senate in 1994.
BTW, Krugman has a niece piece of Shelby’s actions and the Senate’s inability to deal with senators of his ilk.
Cantab,
The central issue isn’t whether the tankers should be built by Boeing or AirBus. That’s just background noise. The real issue is Sen. Shelby’s behavior and willingness to freeze the people’s business merely because Sen. Shelby wants to throw a temper tantrum. And Shelby threw another temper tantrum recently over NASA’s man-to-the-moon project. Sen. Shelby is exceptionally conceited even by the standards of a congress critter. He believes tha the world revolves around him. That was my point about the Administration offering to name another govt building or highway project after him. Seriously, take a tour across northern Alabama sometime and check out all of the “Richard Shelby” this and that projects all over the place. While touring you might even try driving across that I-565 10 lane highway to nowhere pork project that Shelby helped bring home to the voters…all the while railing against govt waste. And guess where that 10 lane highway leads to? If you said the “Richard Shelby Center” at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, then you’d be right. And in case you’ve forgotten what the good senator looks like, there are plenty of big pictures in the Center to help you remember.
As to Sen. Shelby possibly being unpatriotic, aside from the fact that he does come from the Old Confederacy, there are other reasons to question Shelby’s loyalty to anything greater than himself. For example, he first won election in 1986 as a Democrat when the Democrats took back control of the Senate after the 1980 loss. He later became a Republican exactly one day after the Democrats lost control of the Senate in 1994.
BTW, Krugman has a niece piece of Shelby’s actions and the Senate’s inability to deal with senators of his ilk.
Cantab:
Nope, no one would call Shelby a traitor. An idiot perhaps, a step or so lower then an imbecile or a moron; but, no one would call him a traitor. Then too I would be besmirching that group by assigning such a name to Shelby. They can’t help them sleves, Shelby can.
Bruce:
Does your post the reason we now see “Boeing, Combat Ready” ads as a banner at the top of Angry Bear? Hmmmmm????