At least Montgomery County Council members cannot be accused of being too parochial. Instead of focusing their attention on local schools, roads and crime, they’ve been busy making national defense policy. But after eight months of lobbying by Peace Action Montgomery, a majority-backed resolution calling on Congress to cut military spending to free up more money for the council’s priorities was reluctantly withdrawn by President Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring.

It seems that executives at Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin expressed their displeasure to Gov. Martin O’Malley, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and County Executive Ike Leggett.