Duncan Hunter steered $ tens of millions to La Jolla firm for aircraft Pentagon didn't want

[BurtWorm]

And he pocketed $ ten of thousands of campaign cash for his troubles.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070612-1812-cnsairmark.html

Hunter vigorously defends funds steered to La Jolla aerospace firm

By Jerry Kammer and Paul M. Krawzak
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

6:12 p.m. June 12, 2007

WASHINGTON – Rep. Duncan Hunter on Tuesday defended his role in helping steer tens of millions of dollars to a La Jolla-based aerospace firm to develop a military jet the Pentagon did not want. Hunter aggressively supported the program over decades even though the Pentagon repeatedly questioned the jet's feasibility and lambasted the contractor's work.

La Jolla-based duPont Aerospace rewarded Hunter for his support for the program since 1988 with $36,000 in campaign contributions. The Alpine Republican had been chairman of the Armed Services Committee before Democrats regained control of the House earlier this year. He currently is running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

DuPont has long promised that the plane, the DP-2, will take off like a helicopter and provide greater speed, range, and troop-carrying capacity than the current generation of similar aircraft. For just as long, military officials have said it would never work as envisioned.

Hunter, defending his support for the program before the House Science and Technology Committee's investigations and oversight subcommittee, said the DP-2 “represents potential leap-ahead technology to support our Marines and Special Forces ... The idea around here that if the Pentagon doesn't come up with something, that if the services don't like it, you're not going to build it is ridiculous.”

Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who chaired the hearing, noted that the DP-2 “is still not operational and has never received a positive technical review in more than 20 years. Congress appears to have permitted the DP-2 program to become a hobby, not a serious research project.”

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[TwilightGardener]

1. Ben Nelson did the same thing here in Nebraska for an Omaha-based

defense contractor, if I recall correctly (it was in the World Herald). Shame on them both.