Hey Curt,

Guess what? Lots of senior DoD folks read us. Lots of em. One example: When the Army was rebuilding its GCV program, Vice Chief Gen. Chiarelli quoted us in his briefing to Congress, citing both our reporting and commenters in our stories. One story among the thousands in the big city of DoD...

William,

I have yet to encounter a human being who is well informed about Air Force matters who does not predict EADS as the winner, including a number of Boeing folks. Now Boeing may be gaming expectations but it is the conventional wisdom. It may be wrong, but...

Bronco46,

Tactically, the Senate gave way to Obama. Who started this all depends how far back you want to go. Disgraced former Rep. Tom DeLay, a powerful Republican, did more to embed the practice of accepting money in return for earmarks than anyone in recent memory. Then, after the GOP was tossed out from control of Congress, the electorate made clear its disgust with this approach. The Tea Party folks came along and certainly put pressure on the GOP to back away from earmarks and on the Democrats to do something. But I don't think Sen. Inouye would have acted without Obama's veto threat.

Welcome back!

JIm C.

We've covered the actions of EADS (and Boeing) when they received the disk before. Very little new information surfaced in yesterday's hearings beyond the Pentagon confirming that the information provided by the two companies appeared to be accurate. In sum: neither company looked at the information for very long (a few minutes -- tops) and both companies know what the other company knows it knows.

Kind words, all! Thank you.

Joe and LTTG,

Thanks for noticing. Fixed.

LTCJimbo, One of the hard truths of covering the US
military is that few sources provide much of the information.
Service folks leak very specific info about their bailiwicks. OSD
folks fight policy battles through leaks, though thi s has dwindled
under the fearsome gaze of Gates. Loren and a few others like him
possess access to a wide array of folks in industry, in the services and in OSD. And for their own reasons, Loren and his colleagues are willing to speak on the record and in some detail. It's just the way it is. If service folks and OSD spoke more often and with more consistency on background everyone in the defense world would be better served.

Happy New Year!

Colin

Smitty, the image is a representation of a possible model -- not a picture of a real ship.

John,

This source has excellent access within the service and within the White House. Credibility lies in the quality of a source -- not whether you have one, two, three or more sources. In the national security world, if you can find two sources willing to be cited you are likely well behind the curve.