Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: denizen48 who wrote (76977)	3/9/2008 12:35:01 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

But Boeing supporters in Congress, mostly Democrats or home-state and -district members, are directing their wrath at Mr. McCain, the Arizona senator who has clinched his party's presidential nod, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Mr. McCain called the Boeing deal an example of cronyism and corruption, and the courts agreed — sending two officials to jail over it. The winners of the contract — the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman — also downplay the impact on American jobs, saying about 60 percent of their tanker will be built in the U.S. Mr. McCain said he is keeping an open mind on the contract, but in the past he has boasted about his role in blocking an earlier version of the tanker deal that gave the contract to Boeing. The deal was killed in 2004 after a former Boeing executive improperly recruited an Air Force official while she was still overseeing contracts involving prospective Boeing deals. The former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, and a top Boeing executive both served time in prison, and the scandal led to the departure of Boeing's chief executive and several top Air Force officials. "In all due respect to the Washington delegation, they vigorously defended the process before — which turned out to be corrupt — which would have cost the taxpayers more than $6 billion and ended up with people in federal prison," Mr. McCain said. "I'm the one that fought against that ... for years and brought down a corrupt contract." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, sees Mr. McCain's role in a less positive light. She said the earlier tanker deal was "on course for Boeing" before Mr. McCain started railing against it. "I mean, the thought was that it would be a domestic supplier for it," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters. "Senator McCain intervened, and now ... this work may be outsourced." Keith Ashdown, with the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Boeing executives who broke the law were to blame for the demise of the tanker contract — not Mr. McCain. "This was theirs from Day One," he said. "This idea that any lawmaker is to blame is a joke." The EADS-Northrop tanker, based on the Airbus A330, will be built in Mobile, Ala., where it will produce 2,000 new jobs, and support 25,000 jobs at suppliers nationwide.