LaHOOD: PRESIDENT IS BUSH LEAGUE

From USA Today:

A Defense Department plan to close hundreds of facilities that it says are obsolete has infuriated prominent Republican lawmakers at a time when their support for President Bush's Iraq strategy could be more critical than ever.

"I think they are going to have trouble with some of us," says Rep. Ray LaHood, a veteran Illinois Republican fighting to save a National Guard base. A protégé of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., LaHood called the base closing process being finalized this week "as bush league as I have ever seen."

The president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "should have paid a lot more attention to those of us who supported them in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

And here I thought that the decisions to close particular military facilities should be based on the goal of making our military better and keeping us safer.

But LaHood reminds us that the Republicans are in power in Washington -- and every decision should, therefore, be based on political favoritism.