Senator Levin: Looking for Favors?

Thanks to Taxpayers for Common sense and blogger Andrew Moylan for calling attention to some of Carl Levin's questionable earmarks on the Defense Authorization Bill. Read it here.

What Senator Levin did was stuff over $198 million in earmarks into the bill, including two for General Motors Corporation worth $10 million. These earmarks are for military technology research.

This leads me to several questions: if these are are essential military expenditures, why were they not part of the original Defense Bill in the first place? As Chair of Senate Armed Services, isn't Carl Levin capable of figuring out how to appropriate for essential military needs in the bill? Is he trying to hide something?

And, one final question: does that fact that Carl Levin has received over $29,000 in campaign contributions from General Motors already this election cycle have anything to do with it?

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see General Motors get more defense contracting business.  Everyone knows in this state that we have lost thousands of defense contracting jobs in the last thirty years. My concern is with the methodology.

I would be happy to hear Mr. Levin's explanation...