It'll
be interesting to watch the Armed Services Committee hearing today on Obama's
Pentagon picks in part to see how John McCain behaves.
As he returns to Congress, McCain is for the first time in
many years not running for president. My guess is he will be essentially the
same, but tougher and even less controllable, especially on issues like the
future of the super-expensive F-22
fighter. (I recently was reading an excerpt from a 1935 article in the Army's Infantry
Journal -- doesn't everybody? -- and was surprised to see that back then an
airplane was far less costly than a tank. That is certainly not the case now.)
"The fun
thing to watch will be McCain at Armed Services now that he understands that is
where he must make his mark," says one veteran Senate aide. "Lots of hard, hard
choices on defense spending and McCain still has the energy to play a
significant role, which is bad news for a lot of defense contractors."
SAUL LOEB/Getty Images
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