Senate committee rejects Air Force secretary nominee

The Senate Armed Services Committee today rejected, on a tie vote, President Clinton's nomination of a Florida state senator and former fighter pilot to be Air Force secretary.

Detractors said questions about Daryl Jones' flight history and business dealings disqualified him. Unable to muster the votes needed to endorse the nomination, supporters moved to report the nomination to the Senate floor without a recommendation. But that motion failed, 9-9. Jones would have been the first African-American to serve as Air Force secretary.

But witnesses at a nine-hour confirmation hearing last week said Jones, as an Air Force Reserve pilot, almost ran out of fuel on one occasion, flew the wrong way on another and damaged his aircraft by scraping the plane's tail on as many as four occasions -- twice on the same day.

Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the only one of 10 Republicans on the panel to support Jones, said Jones had been the subject of ``rumor campaigns and personal attacks.''

But, Thurmond added, ``I do not believe that anyone has been able to prove that Mr. Jones knowingly sought to misrepresent his credentials, to defraud the government, or to mislead this committee.''

P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for Clinton's National Security Council, said the administration was ``profoundly disappointed'' with the vote and would consult with supporters of the nomination before deciding how to proceed.