by Emory Rowland

  Stealth Politics

Instead of threats from SAM's, or BVR missiles, the F-22 is being shot down by friendly fire from the very institution that spawned its existence, the United States House of Representatives. "I was there" in the Cobb Galleria Center on the night of November 8, 1994 where Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich announced to a crowd of ecstatic supporters that his party would now control congress for the first time in 40 years.

News anchors were in tears. Democrats were scrambling for cover. The world was shocked. This was a night that both dreams and nightmares came true. As Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Gingrich's new conservative Congress would bring a "revolution" by implementing their Contract with America. The man I saw around town and in my favorite Mexican restaurant and in my local barbershop was now one of the most powerful in the world. The 9,200 Georgians employed by Lockheed Martin's Aeronautical Systems Division in Marietta, Georgia could take comfort in Newt's position during an era of defense cut-backs and base-closings.

Mr. Gingrich went on to implement the Contract with America and in the end, became a casualty of his own ideals and combative personality. He easily won re-election in 1998, but casting aside his pride and accepting the blame for Republican losses nationwide, he resigned from Congress. This left Bob Livingston of Louisiana as the next in line for Speaker of the House, but soon he also stepped down after admitting to misconduct uncovered by Clinton sympathizers after the Lewinsky and other scandals surfaced.

This meant that a mild-mannered moderate Republican from Illinois named Dennis Hastert would be Speaker. In defense of his wish to make cuts in the F-22 program, Hastert says "We need to concentrate on those things that work." Back in Georgia, moderate Republican, Johnny Isakson won Newt Gingrich's seat in Georgia's 6th congressional district. Isakson is currently the most junior member of the delegation.

Recall that Georgia is also the home state of Senator Sam Nunn, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In his last three Senate elections, the popular lawmaker carried at least 80% of the vote. Mr. Nunn was considered an authority on national defense matters. Members of both parties recognized him as objective and informed. He is said to have been approached by the Clinton Administration to replace Les Aspen as Secretary of Defense after the Somalia fiasco.

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Mr. Nunn retired from Congress in 1997. This left no dominant political figure to protect the military industry and bases located in the state of Georgia. Ideological enemies of Gingrich and Republicans eager to prove themselves bipartisan sharpened their knives to carve up some Georgia pork.

The 1.8 billion dollar cut was kept off the radar screen by the House Appropriations Committee, and when announced, caught opponents off guard. This stealthy political tactic prevented debate and built quick momentum to fight capable opponents among the civilian, political, and military sectors.

The sudden move to cut the program seems strange coming so soon after the Kosovo victory, where air superiority, high altitude bombing, and stealth were underlying tenets. If the F-22 could have been deployed against Yugoslavia, it might have given the program a needed PR boost. Imagine the headline "F-22 Performs Magnificently Over Kosovo" juxtaposing the headline "F-22 Program Slashed by Congress."

Benefits of Partisan Politics

This is when the politics behind the F-22 get really crazy. In a bizarre tangle of irony, The Clinton Administration, traditionally no friend of the military industrial complex, supports the F-22 program. Whenever feasible, the Whitehouse likes to appear to the right of Republicans. Such a convoluted polarization underscores just how little differences are left between the two parties. Partisan politics may not be a bad idea in some cases.

Okay, more irony. Defense Secretary William Cohen was one of the first to speak out against cutting the program. In a letter to Congress, he stated that he "could not accept an FY 2000 defense bill that fails to fund the F-22 fighter program." He went on to say that "This decision, if enacted, would for all practical purposes kill the F-22 program, the cornerstone of our nation's global air power in the 21st century."

The Clinton Administration both astonished and silenced opponents by choosing the former Republican Senator from Maine to replace outgoing Secretary of Defense, William Perry. Cohen's Senate confirmation vote was a resounding 99-0. The result is a Republican working inside a Democratic Whitehouse opposing Republicans.

Go to Part IV