McCain's ties to Airbus could cost him votes in Kansas

[deminks]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/31184.html

WASHINGTON — As a reliably red state, Kansas has backed a Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections. But Democrats say things could be different in 2008.

With their economy strongly tied to aviation and defense jobs, Kansans are riled over the Air Force's decision Feb. 29 to give a $35 billion aerial-tanker contract to a partnership with ties to France, rejecting a bid by Boeing, which would have done final assembly and testing of the planes in Wichita.

As the anger builds, Democrats are reminding voters that Arizona Sen. John McCain, this year's presumed Republican presidential nominee, has a history of sparring with Boeing, which promised to bring 3,800 jobs to Wichita if it won the contract.

"He has made it abundantly clear that, if president, he would be indifferent to the outsourcing of American jobs, even at a time when our families and our nation's economy are hurting the most," said Larry Gates, the chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party.

(snip)

At a presidential debate in Florida two months ago, McCain boasted that he "saved the taxpayers $6 billion in a bogus tanker deal," a reference to his leading role in stopping a contract between Boeing and the Air Force in 2004 in the face of a procurement scandal that eventually sent Boeing's chief financial officer and a top Air Force acquisitions officer to prison. And in his run for the White House, McCain hired a finance director and several top advisers who'd lobbied on behalf of the European Aeronautics Defense and Space Co., the parent company of Boeing's rival, Airbus.

(end snip)

3800 jobs in Kansas, and 9000 jobs in Washington, given away for one angry old man's vindictiveness. One would think "more wars, less jobs" McCain would comment to America about it. But, maybe Lieberman hasn't thought of a good excuse yet.

Will Kansas wake up and realize they cannot vote for an asshole that is going to stomp on them every chance he gets?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. 37,000 showed up at the Democratic caucuses in Kansas on Super Tuesday

17,000 Republicans caucused. In a red state, a very red state, Democrats outnumbered Republicans more than two to one.

And that was nearly a month before the Boeing loss.

[SoCalDem]

2. and Sibelius is very popular.. why knows?

:)

[L. Coyote]

3. McCain, Riley, Alabama, Abramoff, the secret million bucks, ..

Are we getting closer to who the secret Abramoff donors in Europe were? $30 billion dollars closer?

[L. Coyote]

4. Not to mention, how about any AL-SoCA corruption connection?

This story ties up a lot of loose ends, connecting a variety of scandals in diverse locations.
This needs a much closer examination with regard to lobbying connections.

We have Abramoff illegally funneling money into the Riley race in AL.
In SoCA we have defense contractor bribe corruption.
San Diego based Northrop Grumman falls under jurisdiction of which USA?