Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is re-opening the bidding for a $35 billion Air Force contract for refueling tankers. Only, as the New York Times’ Leslie Wayne reports, a Pentagon "special acquisitions committee," not the Air Force, will decide if Boeing or Northrop Grumman and EADS should get the contract.

It’s the latest humiliation for the Air Force, which, according to a GAO report, seriously messed up in deciding that Northrup Grumman and EADS deserved the contract. Now the contract won’t be rewarded until December at the earliest.

The Times brings out many of the plots and subplots surrounding the botched contract.  These include outrage from some lawmakers that a European company, EADS, should be partly responsible for U.S. defense.-MB

The New York Times’ James Risen reports on Sen. Byron Dorgan’s investigation into whether a top army official in Iraq lied under oath before Congress– and did so to protect uber-contractor KBR. Jerome Johnson, the former head of the Army sustainment command in Iraq, played down, during April 2007 testimony, the problems with drinking water supplied by KBR to U.S. soldiers.

Johnson’s testimony clearly contradicts a Pentagon inspectors general report– released before he testified. KBR, a former subsidiary of Haliburton, is the biggest contractor in Iraq so the implications of Dorgan’s, and the Pentagon’s, investigation could have implications well beyond Johnson.-MB

Good for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson reports that at a Senate hearing yesterday starring Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Whitehouse said he was bothered by a "highly inadequate…only-look-going-forward approach that I detect." Whitehouse wants to look backward to the numerous Bush administration Justice Dept. scandals, from political bias in hiring practices to the legal authorization of torture.

Mukasey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that, yes, problems existed but we’ve taken care of those and are looking straight ahead.  And what bitter reactionary would want to look backward?

The problem is that Mukasey has been uncooperative in explaining what those problems are. He’s even refused to comply with Congressional subpoenas.

If you’ve had a bad week, it’s helpful to say you’re looking forward. That doesn’t hold if you’re the U.S. Justice Department and have had a scandal-plagued seven years.-MB

That was the crux of a Congressional oversight committee hearing yesterday on FEMA "toxic trailers." The Washington Post’s Spencer S. Hsu reports that Republicans on the committee argued that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be blamed for letting victims of Hurricane Katrina dwell in trailers with 500 times the maximum level for formaldehyde.

Democrats, however, said the blame at least in part lies with industries like Gulf Stream Coach,  who got a $520 million government contract to supply trailers, and didn’t do self-regulation.

Congressional oversight hearings, even the one on Rogers Clemens and steroids, invariably break down along partisan lines. It was interesting how this one shook out. Normally Democrats are blaming the government for not holding the rogue manufacturer accountable. Either FEMA bashing has become passe or there’s more of a realization that government just doesn’t have the resources and people to do it all.-MB