Good morning, all.

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post wants you to believe Sen. Saxby Chambliss and six other Senate colleagues are holding African AIDS victims hostage for the sake of politics. In an essay he penned yesterday, Gerson argues that The Coburn Seven (a group of senators including Chambliss headed by Sen. Tom Coburn) are blocking reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

In a way, that’s true. But not really new.

Good morning, all.

Hey, remember these guys? Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

Come on. Think back a few months and you’ll jar loose the name Solvay, the latest industry to toy with our emotions by flirting with locating in Athens, only to dump us for someone else. We’ve been saying for months that the company planned to build its $300 million flu vaccine plant in Birmingham, Ala., rather than Athens. We’ve just been awaiting final word.

But it never came. The company’s imminent announcement on the site location turned into “next week” which turned into an “eventual announcement” which, well, has seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth. Last week, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley let another clue slip in this never-ending process. Here’s a chunk from the Birmingham News on April 30: