Comrade tries to kill Hastert project

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The project in question was a $2.5 million grant to an Illinois nonprofit organization to help hi-tech companies develop new technologies for the Navy.

The president of the group, the Illinois Technology Development Alliance, is a former Hastert aide, Tom Thornton. He doesn't donate to political campaigns, and the IDTA doesn't have a Washington lobbyist - two key components of recent influence-peddling investigations.

Flake didn't know about the Hastert link when initially targeting the project. He subsequently found out - and went ahead anyway. "I don't think that is appropriate for a defense bill," he said. "We ought to be spending money ... on helmets, on body armor, on other things, rather than subsidizing the technology center in a particular state."

Hastert had better uses of his time than to stroll to the floor to issue a rebuttal. Instead, Illinois GOP ally Ray LaHood came to the floor to inquire incredulously, "Do you know who earmarked this money?"

Acknowledging it was Hastert, Flake stammered: "Had I agreed to pull back now, I would be looked to favoring one particularly powerful member of my party." Flake, however, let the matter pass without forcing a roll call vote.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/14871200.htm

It seems to me that they only care about supporting defense contractors. After all they get all sorts of kickbacks that way.

Troop support isn't anything they remotely care about. Yet they want to keep them in harms way indefinitely.:grr: