Lott delays vote on base closing nominee

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/01/base.closings.ap/index.html

A longtime Republican foe of this year's planned closing of military bases is trying to derail the process by blocking Senate confirmation of the head of the commission that helps pick which facilities will be shuttered, congressional aides and lobbyists said Thursday.

Most GOP leaders support closing bases and this latest round likely will go forward. But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, a staunch defender of military facilities in his state, has pledged to do whatever it takes to block the closures.

Two weeks ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved President Bush's nomination of Anthony Principi, Bush's former secretary of veterans affairs, to be chairman of the commission overseeing the process.

The commission is a rubber stamp. The recommendations are supposed to come out mid-May and the commission will hold hearings until September, but the aministration has apparently put out the word to the commissioners: no changes. No link, but that information was gleaned from a Google search I did a few days ago.