2. Considering that Shelby is in the minority party, he must be quite adept to be the new "king". Huntsville [[MICOM) and Warren [[TACOM) were Army choices for consolidating the R&D and logistics missions.
Polticians had a lot of say behind the scenes regarding BRAC. There were lots of trade-offs and lobbying efforts. To say BRAC was/is solely controlled by the Pentagon is rather inaccurate.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40388.html
Why can't Levin bring some bacon home at least?