Defensive Pork

We discussed Donald Rumsfeld's involvement in the Boeing Oil Tankers for campaign contributions scandal earlier and how he avoided getting so much as a scratch. The Washington Post has some comments this morning in Holes in the Tanker Story.

TWO YEARS INTO the controversy over the Air Force's botched and misguided deal to lease refueling tankers from Boeing Co., the full story still isn't known. Defense Department Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz's report on the tanker deal, released this month, is as notable for its lapses and omissions as for its discoveries.

[....]

...Mr. Schmitz's report skewers a number of senior officials -- including former Air Force secretary James G. Roche and former defense undersecretary Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. -- for evading established procurement procedures.


But investigators failed to interview Mr. Aldridge, despite the central role he played. Mr. Schmitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing this month that his investigators tried: They sent Mr. Aldridge registered letters and left telephone messages at his home. This is a man who sits on the board of a major defense contractor. How hard could it have been to find him -- and why not use the inspector general's subpoena power if needed?

Likewise, while investigators spoke with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former deputy defense secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, none of their comments were included in the report, Mr. Schmitz testified, because they hadn't said anything "relevant." If so, investigators must not have asked the right questions. To offer just one example: Mr. Roche recounted that Mr. Rumsfeld called him in July 2003 to discuss his then-pending nomination to be secretary of the Army and "specifically stated that he did not want me to budge on the tanker lease proposal."

The final paragraph jumped out at me;

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the other members of the Armed Services Committee who refused to be worn down by years of Defense Department stonewalling should now persist in getting the full report on the record and completing the job that Mr. Schmitz started. At the start of the June 7 hearing, committee chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) called the tanker lease affair "the most significant defense procurement mismanagement in contemporary history." Surely then it's his committee's responsibility to trace responsibility up the chain of command.

While all this is true we are talking about the new and unimproved John McCain who wants to be President. David Brooks has an excellent commentary on Senator Bill Frist this weekend which I covered here. He explains how Bill Frist changed when he set his eyes on the White House.

But the Senate changes people. Senators are endlessly polished and briefed; they spend their days relentlessly speechifying. The White House beckons, and some come to seem less like human beings and more like nation-states. Opinions turn into positions. Beliefs grow more abstract. Individual traits become parts of the brand.

This applies, I think, equally to John McCain, who at this point will not step on any toes to expand the tankergate scandal.