GOP

Sen. Corker Describes Sen. Chambliss’ Hole-in-One with POTUS

By John T. Bennett in Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intelligence, Intercepts, Obama, Policy, Sequestration No Comments Tags: , , ,

GOP Sens. Saxby Chambliss (left) and Bob Corker of Tennessee (right) golfed on Monday with President Barack Obama (center) at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Chambliss hit a hole-in-one on the 11th hole. (Dennis Brack via White House Pool via Getty Images)

United States presidents know more than the rest of us, and usually in near-real time. They have access to the ever-expanding U.S. intelligence community, after all.

But it turns out there’s one situation in which commanders in chief are just like their constituents: When a member of their golfing foursome hits one over a hill and onto the green, very close to the pin. Just like average folks, even POTUS is left unsure whether the ball dropped into the cup. That’s just what happened to President Barack Obama on Monday.

“We couldn’t tell whether the ball had gone in. The hole was over a hill and so we couldn’t see it,” a member of the high-powered foursome, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told Defense News on Tuesday morning. “The Secret Service guys thought it might have gone in.” More

Fore! Obama Hits Links with Grand Bargain-Favoring GOP Senators

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, Obama, Policy, Sequestration No Comments Tags: ,

Golf clubs outside the south portico of the White House late last year. (AFP/Brendan SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images)

It’s cool and damp in Washington. But that isn’t keeping President Barack Obama from getting in a round of golf. Intercepts will leave the inevitable presidential golfing jokes to others. But it’s worth noting Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee will be part of Obama’s foursome. Both are advocates of the kind of “grand bargain” fiscal deal needed to lessen or totally replace planned cuts to national defense spending.

The unseasonably chilly conditions the trio and Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado will encounter provide a fitting metaphor for the grand-bargain issue, which they likely will discuss. After all, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Ranking Member James Inhofe, R-Okla., said Friday “there has been virtually no sign of movement toward a bipartisan agreement.”

Each of Obama’s golfing partners has talked forcefully and passionately about striking a “grand bargain” accord this year. Is this the beginning of what experts say is the second-term president’s last chance to get a big fiscal bill through Congress? More

Deciphering Obama: The President’s Complicating Syntax

By John T. Bennett in Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intelligence, Intercepts, International, Obama, Operations, Policy, Sequestration, Syria No Comments Tags: , ,

U.S. President Barack Obama address reporters at the White House on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

ESSAY

Barack Obama ran once for the U.S. presidency promising hope and change, then once mostly appealing for more time to allow his policies to work. But increasingly, it appears likely his legacy will be more about “red lines” and something called “permission structures.”

The 44th president has taken plenty of heat over his rhetorical gyrations on both sides of the very “red line” he set last year on Syria’s bloody civil war. And political pundits and those with a stake in overturning the much-maligned sequestration cuts are still scratching their heads over the the newest Obama turn-of-phrase: “permission structures.”

The problem for Obama — and by extension, stakeholders in the quest for a “grand bargain” fiscal deal that would undo the defense and domestic sequestration cuts (and by further extension, the entire country) — is his syntax has become complicated. And, as a result, it is complicating the work of getting things done, maintaining a sense of presidential authority in Washington and transmitting consistent leadership on the world stage. More

Is a Defense-Sector Ally in Danger of Losing His Senate Seat?

By John T. Bennett in Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, Policy Tags: , , ,

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., points to images of firearms during a Jan. 30 hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Armed Services Committee member and defense business sector ally Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has gained influence in Washington this year as the White House has courted mostly moderate Senate Republicans. But back home, voters are taking a second look at the senior senator from the Palmetto State.

Is Graham in danger of losing his 2014 re-election fight? It’s a bit too early to even declare his seat as in-play, but a new poll suggests Graham won’t simply coast to victory next November. More

Essay: Why GOP Defense Budget Hawks, Interventionists Are Leery of Chuck Hagel

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Afghanistan, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, International, Operations, Policy Tags: , , , ,

Chuck Hagel leaves the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., after the duo met on Jan. 22. Nine days later, McCain grilled the now-sitting defense secretary at his confirmation hearing. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel once was a Republican United States senator. Several members of the party’s old-school defense budget hawk and interventionist wings count Hagel as an old friend. After all, his congressional voting record isn’t that different from their own records.

The GOP military spending hawks and interventionists have a few things in common. Generally, both factions believe in robust Pentagon budgets that grow above the inflation rate each year. They also, for the most part, believe in a large U.S. military that should be used frequently for all sorts of reasons, from pursuing American interests to fighting al Qaida across the Middle East and North Africa to confronting dictators and rouge states to promoting democracy worldwide.

They might consider Hagel, whose nomination they fought, an old pal. But, make no mistake, the GOP defense spending hawks and interventionists are skeptical about the new secretary because he simply is not one of them. One must look no further than Hagel’s speech Wednesday at the National Defense University in Washington to understand that. More

One GOP Senator Embraces an Obama Tactic His Party Recently Loathed

By John T. Bennett in Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Policy Tags: , , ,

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., leaves the Jefferson Hotel after having dinner with President Barack Obama and 11 other GOP senators on March 6. Corker wants Obama to use campaign-like events to sell a "grand bargain," a tactic the GOP recently panned. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

In big-time politics, a politician’s strength is, to his foes, a glaring weakness. Until, that is, a foe becomes something resembling an ally. Then the one-time foe touts the one-time weakness as the right tactic to make the issue that forged the alliance a reality.

Confused yet? Don’t be. This tangled web is merely the latest development in the posturing and prodding to strike a “grand bargain” fiscal deal that likely — probably, maybe — would replace the much-maligned sequestration cuts. Let’s untangle things to see just how quickly enemies can become allies. More

Dr. (Sen.) Coburn Diagnoses Washington’s Ills: “It’s All About the Next Election” (Video)

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, Policy, Video Tags: , ,

YouTube Preview Image

“Epic Coburn rant.” Scribbled in a notebook, between notes from two interviews, was that reference to a blunt — and telling — March 20 floor speech by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., blasting Senate Democratic leaders and his fellow senators.

Coburn, a leading GOP voice on fiscal and budgetary matters, panned Democratic leaders for blocking Republican amendments to a government-wide spending bill. And he hammered rank-and-file members for lacking the courage to vote on difficult issues. More

One Senator’s Quest to Shoot Down the ‘Missile to Nowhere’

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, Operations, Policy Tags: , ,

A MEADS system, pictured in 2011, successfully showing the platform can "engage and defeat a target coming from anywhere using just a single launcher," according to MEADS International, Inc. (MEADS-II photo)

The U.S. Senate is having a hard time moving to a final vote on its version of a 2013 continuing resolution that would keep the Defense Department and other federal agencies open. Part of the reason why is one senator’s push for an amendment to stop funding what she has dubbed the “missile to nowhere.” Intercepts readers likely know it by its actual name: the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS. More

Sen. Cruz: Sequestration Kicked Off Conservative Winning Streak (VIDEO)

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Policy, Video Tags: , , , ,

YouTube Preview Image

Firebrand freshman Senate Armed Services Committee member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, embraced deep cuts to annual Pentagon spending Saturday during his keynote Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) address.

“For the last three weeks, conservatives have been winning, and we’re winning because of you,” Cruz said to applause, leading off his remarks. “We’re winning right now.”

What started the perceived winning streak? Sequestration.

“We’re here in Washington at a momentous time,” a serious-looking Cruz said. “And I mean, of course, the sequester.”

(Audience Laughter) More

In Search of the U.S. House’s Salmon Swain

By John T. Bennett in Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Intercepts, Policy Tags: , , , , ,

Fresh salmon at Pike Place Farmers Market in Seattle. Two senators this week tried to put a House-crafted salmon restoration funding provision on ice. (George Rose/Getty Images)

Salmon isn’t pork. It’s salmon. Until two high-profile senators decide the tasty pink fish is indeed pork, that is — and try to put said salmon on ice.

The Senate “salmon spectacle” was detailed by Intercepts on Wednesday. After Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma lifted a joint hold of a continuing resolution to keep the government running through Sept. 31, the Senate is moving — plodding might be a more accurate word — toward passage of its CR that includes a full 2013 Pentagon spending bill.

Since the “spectacle,” tempers have cooled and senators have mended fences. The Senate’s self-described maverick took a few jabs Thursday at House Appropriations Committee leaders, who crafted the bill in which the salmon provision — and others for billions McCain and other Senate Republicans dubbed “stupid” and “pork” originated. Here’s what I reported yesterday after a brief pork-flavored conversation with McCain:

McCain said the House’s inclusion of the Guam funding, as well as other items totaling $6.4 billion such as preventing the Army from retiring cargo planes it no longer wants to Pacific Coast salmon restoration, showed “we haven’t really changed around here. … the old bulls who run the Appropriations committees still run things.”

Trading barbs, for better or worse, is what lawmakers do. Beyond the barbs, a question remains unanswered: Which House member’s taste for Pacific Salmon transformed the tasty fish into Washington pork?

Sadly, we may never know. More

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