Oberstar to NWA, Delta: Not so fast

Rep. Jim Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, is threatening to "run out the clock" on the NWA-Delta merger until a new president is in office.

From Politico:

“We have no legal authority to block the merger, but we can continue to raise issues about it and ask the [Transportation Department] and [Justice Department] to address them,” said Oberstar spokesman John Schadl. “Simply put: Jim may be able to run out the clock on this.”

If a Democrat were elected president, so the thinking goes, there would be a greater chance of the merger being rejected by regulators newly charged with doing their jobs. There is nothing to say that Oberstar will be successful in this, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the state legislature are tripping over themselves to lure the new Delta's HQ to Minnesota with millions of dollars in tax breaks. (MPR)

The company isn't going to relocate, but here's a prediction that you can hold me to: The dangled goodies could well give Atlanta-based Delta enough leverage to demand similar corporate charity from its home state of Georgia just to stay put.