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Will it be a Celebration or a Funeral?
Early tomorrow morning, a gaggle of Utah politicians will gather in Sen. Bob Bennett's office at 431 Dirksen Building, Washington, D.C. There will be some nervous shuffling and plenty of poker faces as they get set to receive some really big news.
At right around 9 a.m. (7 a.m. Utah time), about 100 couriers from the Pentagon will simultaneously deliver packets to congressional offices. The group at Bennett's office will rip open the packet, see the fate of Hill Air Force Base, and what follows will either be a really big celebration or a very sad funeral.
The Pentagon will hold a news conference about 8:30 a.m. Utah time, and the Utahns in Bennett's office will also speak to reporters as soon as they have news. In the meeting will be members of the congressional delegation, Lane Beattie from the Chamber, State Sen. Sheldon Killpack from Syracuse, Leo Memmott from the governor's office, Layton Mayor Jerry Stevenson, and others.
Rick Mayfield, executive director of the Utah Defense Alliance, will be there and he fully expects the gathering to end happily. But he said any celebration will end rather quickly as the group puts its game face back on and discusses strategy to capitalize on the base closing recommendations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Mayfield said he believes neither HAFB or Dugway Proving Ground will be on the Pentagon's closure list. He's not so sure, however, about Tooele Army Depot. Assuming Hill survives, the focus of Utah politicians and economic development leaders will be to pick off missions and assignments of bases that are eventually closed. For Utah, the BRAC process will turn into a 3-5 year economic development opportunity, Mayfield said. It will be a matter of positioning Hill to obtain more work.
Bickering Among the Smurfs
Some Democrats, being Democrats, are apparently still grumbling about their leadership election. A UPD reader named Aengus (no other name) sent in the following: “Ok, LaVarr, this is actually kind of funny. There has been a little whining from the far left about the results of last week's Demo party election. So, in an effort to be funny and enliven the debate, new Vice Chair Rob Miller and new Secretary Xavier Hermasillio posted a mild chastisement” on the Democracy For Utah blog.
Here's an excerpt: “To all the haters and dividers out there, go Smurf yourself! There is enough room in the Smurf Village for every Smurf...Liberal Smurf, Conservative Smurf, Moderate Smurf, Pacific Islander Smurf, Hispanic Smurf, Gay Lesbian Transgender Bisexual Smurf, African American Smurf, Progressive Smurf, Labor Smurf, LDS Smurf.....get the picture?”
Nicknames Are So Cute
A question posed in Wednesday's Utah Policy Daily was whether Pres. Bush still affectionately calls Mike Leavitt “Mikey.” A veritably unimpeachable D.C. source quickly e-mailed back the answer: “Yes.” This source, however, might be considered suspect because she likes to label people with her own nicknames. She often calls me “Varr.” (Better than “Spider,” or “Webfoot,” I suppose, but I personally prefer “World Wide.”) Meanwhile, dedicated reader Robert Collins e-mailed to say that Leavitt's nickname could be worse. Bush could call him “Leavitty,” but he's just not that funny of a guy.
Partisan Spat over HAFB
Todd Weiler , Davis County Republican chair, has issued a scathing rebuttal to comments made by Richard Watson , his Democratic counterpart, about Democrats being left out of the effort to save HAFB. Weiler said, “. . . I was first amused and then disgusted by this week's self-serving and calculated tempter-tantrum about Hill Air Force Base being orchestrated by the Davis County Democrats . . . Mr. Watson's desperate call for attention is undermining the thousands of volunteer hours and the millions of dollars invested in promoting HAFB's chances of surviving another round of base realignments and closures. . . . If this is the best that they have to offer, then perhaps no one should be surprised that Davis Democrats have not won an election since 1990.” |
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