But the combination of two good companies is not always a good thing and when they bridge separate segments of an industry the results rarely meet the expectations of the acquirer.
This was the guy, remember, who in 2005 offered an amendment to remove funds from a little thing he called the Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere" and to divert them to a vital bridge destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
It does, however, make the odds against his successful defense of American interests a bit less like those faced by Horatius at the bridge, if not yet the "sure thing" the merits of the case ought to dictate.