The Whole Delivery

The Washington Post has this headline from the latest development of Senator Airbus's hostage holds of more than 70 presidential nominees. Shelby releases holds on Obama nominees Yayyyyy, everything a-okay, Shelby stopped being the nut that he is publicly by letting it go from the growing heat he was getting. Um, no : But as Shelby’s own statement makes clear, he is still holding up some of the military nominations to benefit Airbus. The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security – the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). With that accomplished, Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued. The Air Force tanker acquisition is not an ‘earmark’ as has been reported; it is a competition to replace ...

As you have all heard by now (or read by now) the news of Alabama Republican knucklehead Senator Richard Shelby providing another reason why the Senate is broken by holding "Up or Down" votes on President Obama nominees, "Thee" emptywheel points to the key reason why Shelby is being an annoying jerk as usual The key issue is that Shelby wants the Air Force to tweak an RFP for refueling tankers so that Airbus (partnered with Northrup Grumman) would win the bid again over Boeing. The contract had been awarded in 2008, but the GAO found that the Air Force had erred in calculating the award. After the Air Force wrote a new RFP ( TWD note: RFP means "Request For Protocol" ) in preparation to rebid the contract, Airbus calculated that it would not win the new bid, and started complaining. Now, Airbus is threatening to withdraw from the competition unless the specs in the RFP are revised. Essentially, then, Shelby’s threat is primarily about gaming this b...