Letter questioned airport staffing

[NewInNewJ.]

Letter questioned airport staffing
Air controller wrote to both Ky. senators

By James R. Carroll
[e-mail]
The Courier-Journal

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/NEWS0104/609130533

WASHINGTON -- Nearly five months before Comair Flight 5191 crashed, an air traffic controller told Kentucky's senators that Blue Grass Airport's control tower had two people working the midnight shift "only when convenient to management."

"This is the FAA playing a scary game of politics and using safety as the trump card," Faron Collins, vice president in Lexington of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, wrote in an April 4 letter.



"We had a controller retire last month and now we are back to single-man mids," referring to midnight shifts. "I ask you one simple question. Are two people needed on the mids for safety or not? If they are, why are they not scheduled?"

Collins urged Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., in identical letters to support union-backed legislation that would prevent work rules from being forced on the controllers. There was no action on the legislation in the Senate or House.

[cboy4]

1. It's not surprising that useless ass Mitch McConnell didn't help. He's one

of the most shameful, partisan senators in congress.

Plus, he's a liar.

<snip>

McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said the senator's office could not find the letter.

"Senator McConnell is committed to ensuring that there is a thorough investigation into the cause of the Lexington crash," Steurer said. "The senator has been briefed by the NTSB and also raised the issue with President Bush and his nominee for Transportation secretary, Mary Peters."

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Not really familiar with Bunning, but I see there's an (R) next to his name, so he can't be much better.

Gotta save money to waste in Iraq!!

[acmejack]

2. Bunning is simply nuts.

He hasn't had a rational thought in a decade.

snip>
This apparent fear of the spontaneous has spurred rumors in Kentucky that Bunning, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is suffering from some sort of dementia, perhaps Alzheimer's. Bunning has declined to release his medical records. But until now, there was nothing hard to suggest that the one-term Republican senator was anything but a crotchety, occasionally confused, or arrogant old man.

On Monday, however, Bunning -- who turns 73 this month -- abruptly retreated behind yet another barrier, in an action so inexplicable that it appears likely to bring the rumors about his health, now referred to obliquely in Kentucky news reports, into open discussion. It may also mark a turning point in a race that, against all expectations, has been tightening recently.

Saying falsely that he was needed in Washington this week for Senate votes, Bunning tore up his own carefully crafted debate agreement and refused to return to Kentucky on Monday for his one scheduled debate with Mongiardo. It was to have taken place at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the Lexington, Ky., studio of WKYT-TV. Instead, Bunning insisted on "debating" via satellite from the womblike conditions of the Republican National Committee headquarters studio in Washington.

The senator refused to allow a member of the Kentucky media to be present at the RNC studio to monitor whether Bunning was receiving assistance with his answers, according to Mongiardo campaign manager Kim Geveden and WKYT news director Jim Ogle. And Bunning refused to engage reporters via satellite in a previously agreed upon post-debate news conference, insisting instead that his 15 minutes of answering questions occur by telephone, without accompanying video footage.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/11/235445/28