McCain advisers lobbied for Airbus over Boeing

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080311/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_airbus;_ylt=AicHu2gXBLkk7aUKlOnY44is0NUE

WASHINGTON - 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.

(end snip)

Wonder how this will play here in Kansas? Continuously voting against their self interests? Wedge issue alert. Why does McBush hate American workers?

[mucifer]

1. dems need to attack mccain on this crap and not each other

oh well...

[annabanana]

2. With all his lobbyist connections.. this guy is tied up in

a bunch of odd positions. I want the discussion to go to the mountain of Abramoff info he's quashing.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. McCain is another Bush just waiting to happen!

A walking disaster! Stay the course over the cliff of no return for the American dream.

[Contrary1]

4. kick