John Boner and Eric Cantor have been talking big about cutting the defense budget, but plenty of members of their own caucus don't like the idea. At. All. Sez Rep. Howard McKeon of California:
I cannot say it strongly enough: I will not support any measures that stress our forces and jeopardize the lives of our men and women in uniform...
Brave words indeed.
But guess what Howard didn't say strongly enough? In fact, he didn't say it at all -- strongly, weakly, or mediumly: In the last election cycle he received $300,000.00 in campaign contributions from defense contractors. Last cycle was especially kind to Howard, since it brought with it nearly 40% of the $778,000.00 he's received from the masters of war since 1992. Always one to know on which side his howitzer shells are oiled, Howard certainly won't be complaining about unrestricted corporate campaign contributions any time soon. Yep: Those defense contractors is just real good folks...
You know who else is real good folks? Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker, the New York Times reporters who wrote this story. In a 17-paragraph story, they buried in the 12th 'graph the fact that Howard was the last election's single biggest recipient of defense contractor largesse. The Times has editorialized against the influence of unrestricted corporate donations. Is it too much too ask their reporters that they elevate the single most relevant fact in the story to a place where people might actually read it?