Inhofe's continuing to harrass Southwest Airlines

[HKG_Flyer1]

Crazy Senator Inhofe is at it again:

http://newsok.com/article/1669515/?template=home/main

In some sort of bizarre, misguided quest to help American Airlines keep its long-haul air service monopoly in DFW, he wants to shut Love Field in three years, thereby ending all Southwest Airlines flights between Oklahoma City and Dallas.

Side effects of his whacky scheme include:

• sending Oklahoma City - Dallas (and Tulsa - Dallas) airfares into the stratosphere (as an example, on flights between DFW and Omaha (where an American Airlines monopoly is currently in place, airfares frequently exceed $1,000 round trip).
  
  
• tossing 24,000 Love Field employees out of work;
  
  
• triggering a City of Dallas budget crisis (Southwest is one of the City's largest tax payers)

Repeal of the Wright Amendment has been advocated by the following newspapers:

Pro-Repeal
Albuquerque Journal
Amarillo Globe-News
The Arizona Republic
Austin Business Journal
Colony Courier-Leader (Lewisville, TX)
D Magazine
Daily Oklahoman
Dallas Business Journal
Dallas Morning News
East Valley & Scottsdale (AZ) Tribune
The Economist
Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO)
Houston Chronicle
Las Vegas Sun
Los Angeles Times
Memphis Business Journal
The Monitor (McAllen, TX)
Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix
National Review
New York Times
Odessa (TX) American
Omaha World-Herald
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Plane Business
The Press-Enterprise (Ontario, CA)
San Angelo (TX) Standard Times
San Antonio Express-News
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Petersburg Times
Tampa Tribune
Texas Monthly
Valley Morning Star (Harlingen/Rio Grande Valley, TX)
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Anti-Repeal
American Way Magazine (AA's inflight magazine)
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

I understand Sen. Inhofe's desire to help one of Tulsa's largest employers, but this is way, way over the line and sends an extremely negative signal to companies thinking about locating in Oklahoma.

[PUGalicious]

It's a completely inexcusable law that defies logic. I thought Republicans were for free market. This law is blatant protectionism of one specific company. Southwest Airlines is a successful, innovative and affordable airline; if American can't compete in the market, it needs to make changes, not get unfair advantages from the government, led by a particularly misguided (and embarassing) senator from Oklahoma.

[writerranger]

SWA supports repeal of Wright. Here is Southwest Airlines site which they setup in support of the repeal of the Wright amendment. http://www.setlovefree.com They are prepared to meet fire with fire. Worst case scenario is they get gate space at DFW and kick everybody's butt from there. They really don't care. But, SWA would prefer repeal of Wright with a "free" and "open" Love Field. People forget that SWA refused to leave Love Field when it was a struggling upstart. Today, if necessary, they would leave Love as a huge and profitable airline. It's a win-win for SWA. Damn, Jim....it's not going to work. American will have to face Southwest no matter what. And no matter where!

[brianinok]

I am a big Republican, and we are big on free-enterprise. I don't know what is wrong with Inhofe on this one.

[HKG_Flyer1]

I am a big Republican, and we are big on free-enterprise. I don't know what is wrong with Inhofe on this one.

I agree... he's so completely out in left field. Everything I've read seems to indicate that this is basically just a corporate welfare deal for American Airlines, paid for by monopoly-level airfares.

A huge coalition of conservative groups, think tanks, etc. have come out against this thing... yet Inhofe heads the opposite direction.

Who knows, maybe American Airlines has incriminating photos or something.

Still, this is a serious issue. He is really making the state look bad.

[Patrick]

What would be hilarious is if SWA stopped all air service to and from Tulsa International Ariport.

I'm all for free market. I think SWA should be able to fly anywhere they want, regardless of what airport they're flying out of. As another poster said, if AA can't compete, maybe they need to retreat. BTW, I'm tired of the federal government bailing out airlines. The airlines need to be more fiscally responsible. But, so does our government.

[soonerguru]

Speaking of embarassments, Tom Coburn appeared on Meet the Press this morning.

He said that gay people "represent the greatest threat to freedom" in our country.

Say again? What do gay people have to with freedom? Isn't it the government that affects whether or not we have more freedom?

I used to buy the lie that the GOP is for personal freedom. Five years of this nightmare have convinced me otherwise.

They are for freedom of big corporations and high income taxpayers and that's about it. They are very anti-libertarian. They want to tell us what to worship, who we can screw, what we can say and read and watch and think.

This crew is about as authoritarian and freaky as any political group I've ever seen in history.

Again, how are gays threatening YOUR freedom?

In my mind, Americans are free to do what they want as long as they don't infringe on my freedom. I couldn't care less if Bruce and Steve sleep together, or Cheney's daughter and her girlfriend set up house, or what. It has nothing to do with my life.

This is the worst kind of politics, and Coburn confirms every stereotype people have of Oklahomans being ignorant bigots.

Listening to our Senators speak on national TV, would YOU move your company here if you had a successful enterprise on the coasts? Our leaders sound more like lunatics from Mississippi Burning, or Jerry Falwell religious fanatics.

OKC seems to progress despite the efforts of our miserable Congressional delegation.

[Karried]

What an embarassment. I just hope everyone at home was either sleeping in or reading the paper.

[jbrown84]

Another reason I didn't vote for him...

What a terrible thing to say.

[HOT ROD]

What an idiot. I hope you all stop sending people like that into the Congress.

Why can't Oklahoma's legislators keep their mouths shut and just work on getting more progress and business (hence dollars) into their state. Their closet freak agendas only hurt the state (and I can't believe you all keep voting for them).

Please, get rid of those idiots - one term is way too many for that facism.

[PUGalicious]

Some of us our trying. But then again some people will vote for anybody because they blindly vote along party lines with little effort of learning what/who they are really voting for.

[HOT ROD]

Some of us our trying. But then again some people will vote for anybody because they blindly vote along party lines with little effort of learning what/who they are really voting for.

I know. I just hope we can convince those who chose to be complacent that the state needs legislators who will work for them! Not, attend to private agendas - which make the state look stupid and lose out on the "real" economic benefits.

[writerranger]

Since the thread is already hijacked into another anti-Coburn thread, let's put the whole portion of this interview in context. From the MEET THE PRESS transcript http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9898884/ :

MR. RUSSERT: But voicing his opinion, as he did there on gay rights, you recall in the campaign back in Rogers County, when you made comments like this, telling a group of local Republicans that-- "[Coburn] told a meeting of local Republicans that `the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power. They are the greatest threat, that agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom we face today.'"

SEN. COBURN: It's a threat to undermine the family. It does undermine the family. And if you look at the structural problems with our country today, what is happening to us at every level as a nation and in our culture? Our families are falling apart. If you look at how we spend money in the federal government, the increasing amounts that we're spending are to attack--attack--the very problems where the family is falling apart.

MR. RUSSERT: Is that because of gays?

SEN. COBURN: No. It's a symptom of it. There's--it's--there's not a cause and effect. But if we look at any problem that we're facing today in our nation, anything that detracts or undermines this very basic unit of culture is going to undermine our entire country.

MR. RUSSERT: So aren't Judge Alito's views on gay rights relevant to this discussion for you?

SEN. COBURN: I believe he can have views on gay rights very different than mine and still make a great Supreme Court justice.

[BDP]

I thought Republicans were for free market.

Actually, they are "pro-business". Ask any one of them in elected office and they will say they are "pro-business". That's very different than being pro free market.

[PUGalicious]

Since the thread is already hijacked into another anti-Coburn thread, let's put the whole portion of this interview in context. From the MEET THE PRESS transcript http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9898884/ :

MR. RUSSERT: But voicing his opinion, as he did there on gay rights, you recall in the campaign back in Rogers County, when you made comments like this, telling a group of local Republicans that-- "[Coburn] told a meeting of local Republicans that `the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power. They are the greatest threat, that agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom we face today.'"

SEN. COBURN: It's a threat to undermine the family. It does undermine the family. And if you look at the structural problems with our country today, what is happening to us at every level as a nation and in our culture? Our families are falling apart. If you look at how we spend money in the federal government, the increasing amounts that we're spending are to attack--attack--the very problems where the family is falling apart.

MR. RUSSERT: Is that because of gays?

SEN. COBURN: No. It's a symptom of it. There's--it's--there's not a cause and effect. But if we look at any problem that we're facing today in our nation, anything that detracts or undermines this very basic unit of culture is going to undermine our entire country.

MR. RUSSERT: So aren't Judge Alito's views on gay rights relevant to this discussion for you?

SEN. COBURN: I believe he can have views on gay rights very different than mine and still make a great Supreme Court justice.

Some people would call that "polishing a turd." He made a crappy statement and he was trying to put the best marketing spin on it so he didn't sound as extreme as he really is.

By the way, if you're going to say the thread has been "hijacked into another anti-Coburn thread," why then do you add to the "hijacking' by continuing the discussion on the "hijacked" topic?

[writerranger]

By the way, if you're going to say the thread has been "hijacked into another anti-Coburn thread," why then do you add to the "hijacking' by continuing the discussion on the "hijacked" topic?

Because the thread was already hijacked. The one post made it sound like he went on Meet The Press and blurted out that gays are the greatest threat to our freedom. He did not, so I posted what he did say. I don't like the confrontational manner, Scribe. I have looked at your blog and I see that's just your style and it's potshot after potshot with no solutions to problems that face this country, but I feel it's inappropriate in this forum. If you want to continue this, I think you should do it on your own platform on your own blog.

[PUGalicious]

So don't hijack the thread.

And you're entitled to your opinion, but I'll decide for myself what I say and where I say it.

And, what solutions are you offering, then? If you haven't seen any solutions on my blog, it's because you didn't ready very much. But I wouldn't expect you to.

[soonerguru]

OK, so Coburn says one thing in Rogers County and another on TV. Doesn't this make him a hypocrite?

Again, how do gays undermine freedom or the family? That is ridiculous, unsupportable pablum, and anyone who says such a thing is being intellectually dishonest -- or is simply an idiot.

And Coburn is entirely germaine to this thread because this thread deals with Inhofe, our US Senator. Coburn is our only other US Senator. That we have two idiot representing us in Washington is bad for the state -- and certainly bad for a progressive city like OKC.

Maybe Coburn's wishes will come true and we can give up our money for the OKC Crosstown Expressway and we can put all the gays in concentration camps. Hurrah!

[writerranger]

"a progressive city like OKC."

It's not "progressive" in a political sense at all. In fact, I see that all 25 liberals in this city post on this board.

[PUGalicious]

"a progressive city like OKC."
It's not "progressive" in a political sense at all.

On this we can agree 100%.

In fact, I see that all 25 liberals in this city post on this board.

... that's funny!

You should be a comedian!

[BDP]

It's not "progressive" in a political sense at all.

Yeah, but, to be fair, just about everyone is more progressive than Coburn and Inhofe. Hell, most people in 1910 were more progessive than those guys.

[PUGalicious]

ain't that the truth

[brianinok]

Can we get back to the topic at hand-- Inhofe, the Wright Amendment, and Southwest Airlines?

[HKG_Flyer1]

Well, the Senate Aviation Subcommittee is holding a hearing on this thing tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. central time.

The primary Senate advocate of keeping the Wright Amendment in place is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Her husband appears to have made millions off of the DFW Airport Board (who he serves as outside legal counsel)... DFW Airport wants to keep the monopoly.

DFW's lawfirm, Vinson & Elkins has consistently been Sen. Hutchison's biggest financial backer.

Wonder what Sen. Inhofe is getting out of this deal?

[HKG_Flyer1]

Hmmm... now it looks as if Sen. Inhofe is actually going to testify in front of a panel at 8:30 central time as to why he wants to shut down Southwest's corporate headquarters, maintenance facility, training center and Dallas hub.

Should prove interesting.

Maybe he should just put a sign at the Oklahoma state line.