Alva Review-Courier -

WASHINGTON (AP) — Patrick Shanahan, the former Boeing executive, was in a familiar place — aboard an airplane — when he got word of a bolt-from-the-blue political shot across his bow, an apparent blow to his chances of being nominated as the next secretary of defense.

Sen. James Inhofe, the White House-friendly Republican chairman of the committee that would pass judgment on the nomination, was being quoted in news reports as saying he didn't think Shanahan would get the nod, and that Shanahan lacked humility.

Within hours, however, the crisis passed as Inhofe backtracked, insisting he had not...