Presidential Candidate Slams Opponent; In Other News, Sky Is
Still Blue
We thought the Pentagon's recent decision to
cancel the competition to build the next US Air Force
tanker would end the debate for a while. It turns out
all it's done is move the soap opera to a different channel.
Instead of being debated among military-watchers and Wall Street
analysts, the fight has bubbled up on the US presidential campaign
trail. Reuters reports Democrat Barack Obama said Friday the
decision to let the next administration resolve the KC-X bidding
mess was a good idea, but...
"While it was right for the Pentagon to cancel competition... it
was wrong for John McCain to reward two of the Washington lobbyists
who worked against Boeing with jobs on his campaign," the Illinois
senator said.
Obama was in New York, using a
videoconference to address the national convention of the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in
Florida. The IAM has opposed the Airbus-based tanker proposed by
Northrop Grumman and EADS, saying it would send US jobs
overseas.
Ironically, it was McCain -- a senator from Arizona -- who
thought things were too cozy between Boeing and the Air Force in
2003, when the service announced plans to spend $23.5 billion to
lease and buy 100 Boeing 767s as tankers without competition.
At the time, McCain (right) called the deal a "rip-off" for
taxpayers.
The resulting scandal ended in prison
sentences for Boeing's chief financial officer and a
former Pentagon procurement official.
Neither McCain nor his campaign staff have responded to the
latest Obama attack. It's worth noting that McCain's position
probably puts him at odds with many of his nationalistic,
"USA!"-chanting supporters in the Republican party... who would
likely prefer to see KC-X go to an American company.
Predictably, the Obama camp has targeted that very discord. In
attempting to paint McCain as a corrupt Washington insider, Obama
has also made much of the appointment of several former EADS
lobbyists to work on McCain's campaign. Tom Loeffler, the head of a
lobbying firm called The Loeffler Group, quit the campaign in May,
after it imposed new rules curbing the involvement of
lobbyists.
While it might be a little distressing to see an important
political race brought down to a squabble worthy of afternoon TV
dramas, we have to acknowledge one important step forward. For the
first time in more than a week, Obama is actually attacking his
opponent... instead of a certain Alaska governor.
Klyde Morris (05.02.25)
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