It's funny what running scared will do
Submitted by James on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 12:39pm
You have to hand it to Richard Burr. After a week of positioning himself as Art Pope's go-to guy for fighting working class people, he's all of a sudden interested in gaining some populist cred. His issue of choice is the Outlying Landing Field.
But for the first time, Burr told the newspaper that he would push to cut off funding for an OLF if the Navy tried to build the airfield in North Carolina without a community’s consent.
Burr, along with new U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the panel that has oversight of military requests for facilities and personnel. Burr said he would use that committee membership to play “a number of cards” should the Navy decide to go forward with an OLF at a site where residents are clearly opposed to it.
Asked if one of those cards would be denial of funding, Burr replied “absolutely.”
Mr. Burr has been in the senate for four years. He could have made his position on this issue clear a long time ago and saved the Navy and the people of our state a whole lot of heartache and money. But now that he's sitting on a committee alongside Kay Hagan, the bright spotlight of comparison comes into play.
It's not surprising to see him scrambling to curry favor with working people. And it's certainly better late than never.
But it would be even better if our senior senator actually cared about the people of North Carolina in the first place.
Who knows, maybe Senator Burr does care. Maybe he just votes against his conscience because he now sees his job as being a Republican Party guy, not a North Carolina people guy.
Whatever the case, he ought to be embarrassed to be coming so late to the OLF party.
- James's blog
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Running scared can also turn people into liars
From the same article:
Uh....
Is this a different Richard Burr?
In March of 2007 he said:
He flip-flopped a month later, and is now claiming "years" of opposition? Wow.
"Keep the Faith"
Thanks for finding that quote from Burr
He thinks people are stupid. Judging from the comments on the newspaper article, he might be right.
Burrrr could be a-thinkin' that his constituents are stoopid
but I think he's just projecting!
I will not chastise him on this OLF position
Burr is with us and I thank him for being here.
Hagen, Burr, Jones and Butterfield have all said in writing NO OLF.
I cannot find Perdue in writing saying NO OLF. I have a reliable source that talked with her staff this weekend and said she is opposed to this OLF anywhere in NC where the people do not want it, words to that effect.
The heavy hitters are lining up on the side of NE NC. I am extremely thankful for that.
The local communities have all the fire power they need to keep this away once the Navy makes a call.
Since early 2005, I have realized this OLF would be a political fight. It does my heart good to see that a community and region have this kind of political backing; the likely hood of the Navy even picking a NC site should be slim now.
While I hate it for the folks in VA, some of their politicians have hinted that they would protect Oceana at what ever cost. I have not followed Webb and Warner to see where they stand on this.
I do not feel it would be appropriate for me to meddle in the affairs of VA. I can only hope for the people at the 3 VA sites, that their politicians have read some of the stuff posted at BlueNC and other sites and will side with the people vice the Navy.
If VA politicians cannot or will not fix Oceana, then the Navy is on a collision course to finding a new MJB regardless.
After all, it is the responsibility of Congress to maintain a Navy. The Navy themselves have stated Oceana is terrible, this is not a place to train young pilots.
Webb, Werner, Hagen and Burr need to really look at what has been going on at Oceana and make a determination, "has Virginia Beach out grown the ability of maintaining a proper and safe training environment for our pilots at Oceana?" If the answer is no, then they need to take the required steps to make the runways that Oceana is responsible for safe and proper for our pilots. If the answer is yes, then Congress needs to make a deceleration and find an apolitical site for the new MJB, one that supports our pilots, can be protected from encroachment for the lifetime of the field and has the OLF support to ensure another Oceana never happens again.
It is my understanding that the runways Oceana is responsible for is the 4 runways at Oceana, the one runway at Fentress and the one runway at Chambers Field (NS Norfolk). If the Navy gets their way, they will have 7 runways for the squadrons homebased at Oceana and Chambers Field for normal day to day operations. Is that abuse of assets?
I thank Burr for joining too
I just don't like him pretending as though he's been working on this all along. He was very late to the party.
What is going to be interesting
is to see what the Navy does with Cherry Point and the F-35. That plane has been "slated" to go to Cherry Point since 2005. The Marine Corps just started the NEPA process to figure out where to homebase those planes. They are suppose to replace the Harriers, which a lot of them are stationed at Cherry Point.
The F-35 is a one for one replacement of Marine Corp assets. Some F/A-18 CD at Beaufort and the Harriers out of Cherry Point. The Marines Corps/Navy (cant remember and not that big a deal as the Marine Corp is "subservient"! to the Navy anyways) told congress the intention in 2005 was to homebase all the F-35s at Cherry Point.
The Navy has been saying Cherry Point does not require an OLF. They have also been saying a parallel runway would not work at Cherry Point (not sure if this statement is applicable for the Marine Corps needs or not). So it would seem the Navy portion of the Navy/Marine Corps team is saying no OLF and no parallel runway for Cherry Point.
A data call during BRAC indicated that the Marines would need either an OLF or a parallel runway to make the F-35 homebasing option a reality at Cherry Point.
It sounds like that is not going to happen?
Pure speculation on my part. I really really hope I am sooooo freaking wrong, but it looks like the Marine Corps F-35s are going to Beaufort, and Cherry Point will be relegated to a lesser role? There are some planes at Cherry Point that wont be replaced by the 35 and they would stay at Cherry. There are some planes at Beaufort that will not get replaced, and arguably, they should move to Cherry. How many I really do not know.
The other thing the Navy may do is POP this new requirement out and reestablish the Cherry Point/Oceana OLF need crapola again.
In 2007, the Navy came to Raleigh and suggested, "Cherry Point will not require an OLF. With that, we are placing the OLF closer to Oceana." Is the Navy preparing to say, "NC, you want the 35 at Cherry Point, provide us with an OLF that both Cherry and Oceana may use, or we will be forced to relocate to Beaufort?"
Fortunately for Havelock, a serious drawback to my arguement is Bogue Field. The Navy has stated that field is for forward base operations tailored for Marine Corps use, which would be inline with what the F-35 would be doing in support of the Marine Corps mission. So maybe what I just said above is moot before the ink is dry. I hope I am wrong and the planes go to Cherry if that is what Havelock desires.
Maybe they wont need the parallel runway, or the parallel runway at Cherry Point is not for extensive FCLP operations. I am not strong enough on Marine Corp field operations to understand why they would need a parallel runway. I attribute parallel runways to the Navy for FCLP operations more then anything else. Maybe, one runway for STOL looping and one for normal missions away from Cherry Point?