Levin doesn’t think much of the Bush Administration’s vow to veto the 2006 defense authorization bill. In fact, he thinks it’s bluster. The White House says it will nix the bill unless Congress excises references to new standards for treatment of detainees in the war on terror. No way, said the Democrat, because it would make the Administration look terrible politically. “No matter what the threat is, to veto a bill like that … is a false threat.” He added, “I don’t think [the Administration] will.”
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…