THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

When it is run aground by rank incompetence using that favorite tool of the Republicans, privatization. In its efforts to expand its ability to protect our shores, the Coast Guard and its partners Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman, have done more damage to its fleet than any enemy since WW II.

Four years after the Coast Guard began an effort to replace nearly its entire fleet of ships, planes and helicopters, the modernization program heralded as a model of government innovation is foundering.

The initial venture — converting rusting 110-foot patrol boats, the workhorses of the Coast Guard, into more versatile 123-foot cutters — has been canceled after hull cracks and engine failures made the first eight boats unseaworthy.

Plans to build a new class of 147-foot ships with an innovative hull have been halted after the design was found to be flawed.

And the first completed new ship — a $564 million behemoth christened last month — has structural weaknesses that some Coast Guard engineers believe may threaten its safety and limit its life span, unless costly repairs are made.....

....And instead of managing the project itself, the Coast Guard hired Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, two of the nation’s largest military contractors, to plan, supervise and deliver the new vessels and helicopters.

And the big stuff was not all they screwed up.

Even some of the smaller Deepwater projects raise questions about management. The radios placed in small, open boats were not waterproof and immediately shorted out, for example. Electronics equipment costing millions of dollars is still being installed in the new cutter, even though it will be ripped out because the Coast Guard does not want it. An order of eight small, inflatable boats cost an extra half-million dollars because the purchase passed through four layers of contractors.

Once again the pure genius of the Dept. of Homeland Security keeps us safe? But have no fear, when the new Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security takes over, you can bet old Joe Lieberman will deal with this in the same clear eyed effective way he has called the Republicans to task for mishandling the war in Iraq. Or to put it another way, shut up and keep paying.