Washington, D.C.—It is both painful and amusing to watch the crowing over this week’s vote by the Senate to delete $1.75 billion in funding for the continued production of the Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor. There are numerous parties in the Obama camp calling this a spectacular victory, but so far no one has outdone the Huffington Post. There the president was hailed as the second coming of Dwight Eisenhower, fighting against the military industrial complex and along with Secretary Gates, “break[ing] its back.”
The reality is not quite so dramatic. Michigan Senator Carl Levin, an opponent of the F-22 spending, said after last week’s vote that “the president really needed to win this vote, not just in terms of the merits of the F-22 issue itself, but in terms of the reform agenda.” In other words, this was a test of manhood between the White House and — well, anyone who got in their way.
