Another bad nomination.

This is just another bad nomination, another promotion for incompetence from the Bush administration. You may not have kept up with the story of these Boeing tanker leases, but here's the quick outline.

The purchase/lease was a little controversial to begin with, set to replace aircraft which still had pretty significant useable life, but that went through congress as defense spending. Then, instead of purchasing the aircraft outright, a strange deal was set up to lease these aircraft which was set to cost the government(you) an extra 30% or 2 to 3 BILLION dollars. Come to find out, the Air Force officer in charge had a $500,000/year job offer on the table from Boeing, as well as, if I remember right, a plum job for her brother or uncle or somebody.

The Bush nominee to head the Air Force is Michael Wynne.

The Air Force has jettisoned a $23.5 billion plan to lease jets from the Boeing Co. for use as air refueling tankers. Boeing's former chief financial officer and a former top Air Force official were sentenced to prison on corruption charges related to the deal.

The former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, is serving a nine-month term at a federal prison in Florida. She admitted inflating the lease price as a "parting gift" to Boeing before leaving the Pentagon for a job at the aircraft giant in 2002.

Wynne was a deputy, then head of the Pentagon's acquisition office. A report by the Defense Department's inspector general in May faulted Wynne for not requiring the Air Force to follow proper procedures for the Boeing leases.

The report said Wynne told the White House budget office that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the lease idea "after comprehensive and deliberative review by the Leasing Review Panel" when that panel had not finished its deliberations or made recommendations.