Florida’s new edge in the water wars could be an F-22

Al Kamen has these lines in the Washington Post:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is trying his best to ensure continued production of the F-22 fighter — the planes are assembled at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Georgia — despite a veto threat by President Obama that would halt production at 187 planes.

So Chambliss has put his “additional views” into the 2010 defense authorization bill, pending in the Senate, calling on the secretary of the Air Force to place an additional jet in each of seven states for use by the Air National Guard. They would be “based at strategic coastal locations in the United States, specifically Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Louisiana and Florida, as well as in Alaska and Hawaii.”

Oddly enough, some of these appear to be the home states of key members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, such as Democrats Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Mary Landrieu (La.) and of a few big-state governors.

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