The Plane Truth: Sen. Larry Craig says he has a bone to pick with the “paper of record.”

A dispute between Sen. Larry Craig and the U.S. Air Force came out from behind closed doors on Friday. The Associated Press reported that the senator, fed up with the Air Force's delay in adding more transport planes to Gowen Air National Guard Base in Boise, decided to hold up Senate approval of an unknown number of officer promotions in the air service.

Craig said that the Air Force had promised seven years ago to move four additional planes to Gowen if the base made improvements. Since that promise, $40 million has been spent to expand and upgrade the base's facilities, according to the senator, but only four C-130 transport planes and another training aircraft are currently based there.

The senator said that a year and a half of his urging had not yielded any firm commitment or action from the Pentagon.

"There comes a time when you expect answers and issues ought to be resolved," Craig said Monday afternoon. "Eighteen months is a long enough time for the Air Force to make a decision."

Under the Senate's "holds" practice, any senator can block action indefinitely and anonymously on a nomination, promotion or legislation. These holds, which are usually anonymous, are used frequently by senators to express disagreements with an administration's action or policy. Congressional holds on military promotions are rare, and putting up a stop sign to airmen's careers isn't sitting well with some of Craig's fellow Republicans.

"It is completely inappropriate to place a hold on the promotion of scores of servicemen and women who play no role whatsoever in establishing Air Force policy," said Sen. John McCain, a member of the Armed Services Committee. "Those who serve our country in uniform, many returning from Iraq, should not be caught in the crossfire of a parochial dispute."

"The question of holds is a long-lasting Senate tradition that often can be problematic," Fleischer said. "And it's part of working with the Senate and helping the Senate to make progress, particularly on the question of appointments and nominees... Clearly, the president is always entitled to have a full team in place at all levels of appointments. And you have to just work these issues through with the Senate."

Craig spoke by phone with Air Force Secretary James Roche on Monday, and the senator said Roche indicated he would be reviewing the Air Force's mission at Gowen field. He said he was "disappointed" that the Air Force had decided to talk about the disagreement with the media.

The article featured several quotes from unidentified Air Force officers lambasting Craig, who they said "single-handedly delayed the careers of hundreds of officers and stymied important Air Force business for a handful of parochial planes."

But Craig disputed several facts in the Times's account. He said the number of officers' promotions he is holding up is less than the 850 the Times reported. (Craig said he didn't know exactly how many promotions are being held up, but he called the Times's number "inflated.") He also contended that a comment from a base spokesman, which indicated that the additional planes were not a high priority, was taken out of context.

"It's not something people here are tapping their fingers over, waiting for them to show up," the Times quoted Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, spokesman for the Idaho National Guard, as saying.

"What he was talking about was the current mission," Craig said. "My job is to secure the future mission. He is not alone sitting there, he's keeping the current mission operational, and it's my job to make sure the future mission is operational."

"Our primary focus is to be trained and ready to go for worldwide deployment," he said. "We're not so involved with politics."

Marsano said the service members on the base "welcome the efforts of our congressional delegation to make this promise come to fruition… The infrastructure we have at Gowen field was designed to handle a full squadron. Ramp space, buildings, facilities… We are geared up to handle a full squadron of C130s or the follow-on to C130s."

Gowen's four C-130s returned in January from a tour in Oman, where they supported operations in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.

But Craig said the hold was necessary to get the Air Force's attention, adding that, "communities have to plan around these kinds of commitments."

The senator said that Air Force officers awaiting promotion paperwork to clear should expect a short delay.

"No pay has been stopped, and no jobs have been terminated," Craig said. "This will probably be resolved in a few weeks."

— Jim Geraghty, a reporter for States News Service, is a regular contributor to NRO.

These hold are odious and no way to run a government. They smack of governance by the Mafia...

Sen. Murray takes procedural 'hold' in port-fund fight

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

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WASHINGTON — Cue the Sergio Leone soundtrack. It's a high-noon standoff, U.S. Senate style.

Using an obscure Senate procedure called a "hold," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is delaying an important Bush administration nomination that could potentially tie up the Senate floor for weeks.

What is a hold?

A hold is a request by a senator to delay floor action on a bill or nomination. Holds — known as "silent filibusters" — are unique to the Senate although they are not mentioned in the official rules or procedures. The origins of holds are unknown. Party leaders keep lists of senators who have holds on various measures.

Source: Library of Congress

The state's senior senator is riled over Homeland Security Department plans to redirect $28 million of the $58 million she secured for port protection.

Holds are known as "silent filibusters" and are not to be taken lightly.

"This is kamikaze," Murray said. "This is a nomination this administration wants badly. I'm grabbing them by the neck and saying, 'Pay attention to me.' "

During a congressional hearing May 13, Adm. James Loy, head of the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of Homeland Security, told Murray that some of the money she got set aside for Operation Safe Commerce may be transferred to other purposes.

Operation Safe Commerce would track containers entering ports in Seattle; Tacoma; Los Angeles; Long Beach, Calif.; New York; and New Jersey.

Murray grilled Loy during the hearing and later that day wrote to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to submit her hold on the nomination of Clay Johnson, the president's choice for deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Three days later, she wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, saying she had "no intention of quietly watching your agency divert funds that are critically needed to ensure the security of our trade lanes."

She persuaded her fellow lawmakers on the House and Senate homeland-security committees, both Democrat and Republican, to refuse Ridge's request to move the funds.

The Transportation Security Administration notified Murray's office last night that it had awarded the ports of Seattle and Tacoma $13.3 million for Operation Safe Commerce. The other ports shared the balance.

Murray's aides say the administration is not committed to releasing the remaining $28 million, and so the hold remains, much to the frustration of the White House and its allies.

On May 23, Loy called Murray just before she boarded a plane for Seattle.

"They called me to beg and plead to take it (the hold) off, and said they'd do part of port security. But I told Admiral Loy unless they released the $58 million, I would keep the hold on," Murray said. "He wasn't too happy about it."

While Senate Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., can still take the Johnson nomination to the floor for a vote, the hold signifies that Murray intends to rally her supporters against him.

At some point, Murray may have to speak on the Senate floor for two straight days. "I've put a hold on a nomination, setting up a fight," she said. "You don't do that until you're willing to fight the battle all the way."

Johnson is a former White House personnel chief who worked as an aide to Bush in Texas. He was nominated in January for the OMB, which helps prepare the administration's budget and sets spending priorities and policies.

According to Roll Call, a political newspaper in Washington, D.C., Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., had just released his hold on the Johnson nomination when Murray made her move. Byrd was apparently angered by the Bush administration's interest in parceling out government work to private contractors.

A spokesman for the OMB said Johnson is not permitted to serve until he has been confirmed by the Senate.

A White House spokesman would not comment on the hold, saying only that Johnson is a "trusted adviser to the president."

Little is known about holds, and no one is sure when they became part of the Senate, according to a report by Walter Oleszek of the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress.

There is no public record of who places a hold, how long holds stay in place, or how many holds have been placed on a bill or nomination.

Oleszek lists different types of holds: "Choke" holds are intended to kill a bill or nomination; "retaliatory" holds are used against another senator. Last year, for example, Murray said, she placed a hold on a bill after a fellow senator placed a hold on her Wild Sky legislation, which would have created a wilderness area in Snohomish County.

Murray's current action may be classified as a "Mae West" hold, a bargaining tactic referring to the actress' famous line: "C'mon up and see me sometime."

"Most holds like Senator Murray's are used for leverage," Oleszek said. "The guy who came up with the name (Mae West)? Who knows."

In a higher-profile example, The New York Times reported yesterday that Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has a hold on 850 Air Force promotions in an effort to push the Air Force to assign four C-130 cargo planes to an Air National Guard unit in Idaho.

Oleszek said the Senate has periodically examined whether holds should be made public, or allowed at all. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee has scheduled a hearing on the practice later this month.

Meanwhile, Murray said she won't back down.

"In my time in the Senate, this is one of those critical times," she said. "We are talking about a container coming into Seattle and causing major damage. I'm more than willing to take this as far as I need to take it."

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