When Congress gets back to business in the New Year, one of its priorities will be consideration of the Bush administration’s request for a massive arms sale - in the neighborhood of $20 billion - to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.

Israel and Egypt also stand to gain billions more in U.S. weapons as part of the package Congress will review.

The proposed deal is controversial because of the Saudi component. Given the Saudi government’s questionable record on fighting terrorism and curtailing terrorism financing, its funding of extremist wahabbist mosques, its supply of foreign fighters into Iraq and a judicial system that recently ordered 200 lashes for a rape victim, some in Congress don’t believe the kingdom should be rewarded with top-of-the-line American weaponry.

It’s usually hairstyles, clothing or smoking habits that date an old movie.

But in the 1954 Christmas classic, White Christmas, it’s a song sung by Bing Crosby, called “What Can You Do With a General.”

In her first address as one of the aerospace industry’s top spokespeople, Marion Blakey, a former senior Bush administration appointee, said U.S. aerospace companies had a banner year.

“With good news in nearly every sector, I am pleased to see the American aerospace industry’s strong international presences continuing to keep pace with our domestic successes,” said Blakey, the new chief of the Aerospace Industries Association, the country’s top lobbying organization for military and commercial aviation companies.