Bonner takes gloves off…sort of
WASHINGTON – You heard it here first back in July, when the GAO caused the Defense Department to negate Northrop Grumman’s winning bid for the KC-X Air Force tanker refueling contract. The chances of getting a new bid done before the expiration of the President George W. Bush’s second term were slim-to-nil.
But, Rep. Jo Bonner didn’t let it go down without a fight. He interjected himself into the 2008 presidential election – attacking Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama for giving his approval to the Pentagon for hitting the reset button again on the bid.
“Note Sen. Obama was not reported to say a thing about delivering the most capable aircraft to our warfighter,” Bonner said on Sept. 15. “Apparently, not his priority. He did not say a thing about delivering the best value to our taxpayers. Again, not a priority. He also said nothing about the 48,000 American jobs that would be created in Alabama and the other 49 states by the Northrop Grumman tanker. Boeing and it supporters in Congress act as though only those workers in Washington state and Kansas are Americans – I am sorry to see Sen. Obama adopt that narrow, parochial view.”
So – maybe it was a little late coming after the fact, but it’s at least a start. Prior to all the turbulence coming from Washington, the gun-shyness had been a point of criticism for not only Bonner, but his senatorial counterparts, Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions.
As populist rhetoric has become increasingly more popular on the campaign trail, Obama blamed Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain for Alabama even having a shot at this boost that would add 1,500 jobs. His claim – a little on the weak side – is that McCain had lobbyist ties to Northrop Grumman and opposed Boeing on those grounds.
Boeing employees have donated money to Obama’s campaign, at a level of three-to-one versus that of McCain according to OpenSecrets.org – a Web site that tracks political donations operated by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Sessions: Sue OPEC for High Prices? No, Sue the Democratic Congress
Back in May when oil prices were at highs, the House passed legislation to sue the OPEC for manipulating oil markets by colluding and causing prices to be artificially high. This was the brainchild of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has resisted increasing the supply via drilling in currently off-limits areas.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, speaking at a news conference outside the Capitol has a different spin, which was particularly popular with some of the participants in a rally staged by the conservative think-tank Americans For Prosperity promoting the drilling option.
“The solution to the energy crisis is to use less and increase the supply,” Sessions said. “I suggested we sue the Democratic congress.”
Whether or not the entire drilling issue will be as viable politically leading up to the upcoming November election, as it was this summer, remains to be seen. The price of oil has plummeted and is hovering around $100 a barrel and the new economic focus is about the current banking crisis and all the government bailout programs put into place.
That has taken the focus off of energy and put it on stabilizing the banking system. And that, for whatever reason, has helped Obama – after losing significant ground from McCain’s selection of Alaska governor and conservative movement pin-up girl Sarah Palin. But, for Sessions, it’s not about politics – it’s about the money.
“Last year, Americans sent $700 billion overseas, in the form of oil payments,” Sessions said. “As T. Boone Pickens has correctly noted, this is the largest wealth transfer of the world – that is $700 billion in foreign bank accounts that could have been invested in American firms, local communities and creating American jobs.”
The House had passed a drilling bill last week, but was considered DOA in the Senate because it didn’t allow states that don’t drill offshore to share in the revenue as Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas do.
The Flailing Campaign of Sen. Vivian Davis Figures
Aren’t middle names supposedly taboo in political campaigns – Barack Hussein Obama, Richard Milhous Nixon, etc.? Alabama State Senator Vivian Davis Figures is referring to her opponent, Alabama’s junior senator as “Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.”
It’s not really doing her any good unfortunately. According to a Survey USA poll released last month – Jefferson has a 22-point lead over Sen. Figures.
When Figures announced her candidacy and eliminated any possibility of Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks running, there was a collective groan across the grassroots left-wing movement.
It’s shown in fundraising. Right now, the score: Sessions $5,855,001, Figures $241,649.
Richard Shelby, the GOP’s Banking Gatekeeper: Bailout to Cost $1 Trillion
Sen. Shelby has been busy lately, as the ranking Republican of the Senate Banking Committee.
As of Sept. 18, the government is on the hook for nearly $1 trillion after the bailouts on Wall Street. To date, the price tag is $816 billion including $29 billion for JP Morgan to takeover Bear Stearns in March, the recent $200 billion Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalization, the $85 billion bailout of AIG, a $400 billion credit line to banks during the crisis and $102 billion in Federal Housing Administration loans.
That price tag is expected to go up even more after the government is taking a page out of the S & L crisis playbook of 20 years ago and is going to utilize the largely taxpayer-financed Resolution Trust Company solution to sort out all the bad debt plaguing the markets.
Shelby, who has been on the national media trail in the wake of this crisis, has predicted it will eventually cost the taxpayer up to $1 trillion – much of which will paid by future generations.
Contact Jeff Poor at jeffreypoor@yahoo.com.
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