McCain Advisers Lobbied for Airbus

[jedreport]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.

Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.

EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to win the lucrative aerial refueling contract on Feb. 29. Boeing Co. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement Monday that the Chicago-based aerospace company "found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal."

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been a key figure in the Pentagon's years long attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiW1J4iWjV71TzWJ0uAmi9yL-N0AD8VB329G0

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Back in 2002, McCain made it his mission to kill a deal between the USAF and Boeing to use 767s to replace the USAF's aeriel refueling tankers which were decades old.

Throughout that time, it was clear that McCain wanted Airbus to get the deal. I was a Hill staffer involved on the periphery of the issue and I remember that some of my colleagues said former McCain staffers were lobbying on Airbus's behalf to get the deal.

A couple of weeks ago, Airbus did get the deal -- along with Northrop Grumman.

What this means is that much of the work for the aerial refueling tankers will be done in Europe, overseas.

Whatever your thoughts are on whether or not we should be spending this kind of money on the military, if we do, we should damn well be spending it in the United States, especially when our economy is in the tank.

This story is a two-fer, and should be a central defining thing for John McCain: not only did he fight to move U.S. jobs overseas to Airbus, but he did so while having close connections to Airbus lobbyists, several of whom are now on his staff.

[elleng]

1. Chair or ranking

of Commerce Committee at the time, or was this after?

[underpants]

2. It's 3AM - will your lobbyist answer the phone

McCain -Lobbyist
McCain -Lobbyist
McCain -Lobbyist
McCain -Lobbyist

repeat it and repeat it and repeat it

[Zorra]

3. McCain lobbied to have American jobs sent overseas?

Probably got some nice campaign contributions, not to mention that part of his motivation could be that Boeing is based in Washington State - a very blue state.

Can't have those Democratic voting workers doing well economically - they need to be punished for not voting republican.

[philly_bob]

4. Not to defend McCain -- but a buddy in airline business says Airbus better.

If this is true, the problem is bigger than Republican presidential candidates.

The problem is that this country is losing its technological edge. Our Internet connections are slower, our airplanes and automobiles are technologically behind, our software is farmed out overseas or to visa guest workers, our alternative energy initiatives are behind, our space program has gotten nowhere for a long time.

Personally, I believe that the problem is caused by the free market economic ideology (see Hayek) that was turned into the dominant view of the Bush era by rich-guy think tanks, and the related "Business works better than government" meme.

Just my $0.02.