Kay Bailey Hutchison: “As a matter of fact, I was very concerned about the appointment of a former staff member of a Senator from a State that…”

“As a matter of fact, I was very concerned about the appointment of a former staff member of a Senator from a State that was going to be in competition with our State on several bases. I was concerned about it. I asked Ms. Steele at the time if she would be willing to recuse herself, since she was on Senator Nickles' staff, from any of the decisions that would bear on a base that was in competition with Oklahoma, and she said no. I thought of objecting to her at the time. I decided that I would not object because I hoped that she would be fair and open and honest. I was concerned when, as a member of the Commission, she was doing the routine tour that Commissioners do of Kelly Air Force Base and she, at the time, said to the commander of the base, ``This is a really nice facility. I wonder what we will be able to do here when all of this is moved to Tinker?'' Now, this was when she was just in the research phase taking the routine trips that everyone takes, and she had made up her mind that this was going to be moved to Tinker.”